Proteas get a bitter aftertaste victory over England by 10 runs

Bavuma and co walk off dejected.

It was always going to be tough to restrict England to under 132, although the absence of dew certainly was a factor in South Africa's advantage. But Roy and Buttler went hard, and although the former had to retire hurt due to a potential tournament-ending injury, England kept coming.

All their specialist batters entertained, even if only briefly, but the game was theirs heading into the final over.

But Rabada had the last laugh, removing both set batters in the first two balls and then adding one more next ball to get a hat-trick for himself.

England were a bit slack on the field and that's probably what made the difference in the end, although SA still almost let this slip.

Kudos to Rabada, as well as Pretorius and Nortje who held their composure fairly well.

Four wins in five games, yet eliminated. The group was rightly called the 'Group of Death' and South Africa couldn't get past the league stages, albeit by the barest of margins.

The semi-final draw, of course, will not be confirmed until all the Group 2 permutations sort themselves out tomorrow and Monday; but there's a good chance Australia will face Pakistan, and England one out of New Zealand, India or Afghanistan.

Hat-tricks in Men's T20 World Cup
Brett Lee vs. Ban, 2007
Curtis Campher vs. Net, 2021
Wanindu Hasaranga vs. SA, 2021
Kagiso Rabada vs. Eng, 2021

Hat-tricks by South Africans in White Ball international cricket
Charl Langeveldt - ODI v WI, 2005
JP Duminy - ODI v SL, 2015
Kagiso Rabada - ODI v Ban, 2015
Imran Tahir - ODI v Zim, 2018
Kagiso Rabada - T20I v Eng, 2021

Rassie van der Dussen | Player of the Match: It (the award) doesn't mean too much in the context, but we knew we had to get a good score. We were asking too much from the bowlers to defend that score in order to get into the semis. At the end of the day, it was a good performance, beating a good side. It's a type of a wicket, where the new batters needed time to get in, you saw that in their innings when they lost wickets. So Markram and I tried to get in and get a good total. The three venues are so different. The match against Bangladesh, the pitch was different, it was difficult to bat there. Today it kept low, from the batting point of view it has been quite a challenge to adjust to the three venues. The batting units who have adapted the quickest have been the most successful.

Eoin Morgan: I think it was a really good wicket. SA came really hard at us, batted well. I thought we were a bit off in the field, held them to a slightly par score. Obviously, Jason Roy going down the way he did does hurt, but we still did well to get that close. I think every game tests us in different ways. The biggest test this tournament has been against Sri Lanka, batting first and Jos Buttler rescued us from a hole. Had to bowl under the dew and we came out with flying colours. Today, there wasn't as much pressure although it was a good test. Probably Jason will be assessed tomorrow. We do have a lot of depth, we've built a good white-ball group over the last few years, so really excited. Yes, really happy, we've topped the group and that's never easy.

Temba Bavuma: The win was important. Bitter-sweet end for us. We achieved what we wanted to - win the game but just couldn't win it big enough. At the start of the tournament, that (net run rate) was never a factor for us, we just wanted to win games. It's always tough to make up for that at the back end, especially against a team like England. The young guys will learn a lot from this. I think this is going to give us a lot of experience and confidence. It'll give us a lot of knowledge on how to go about things forward.