The outgoing Mark Boucher on Sunday described South Africa’s shocking defeat by The Netherlands in the T20 World Cup as the worst of his tenure as coach, the result leading to another heartbreaking exit for the perennial chokers.

With rain spoiling their Super 12 opener against Zimbabwe, the Proteas climbed up to the top of Group 2 with wins over Bangladesh and India. They only needed to beat the Dutch to make the last four.

But their bowling let them down as the Dutch posted a challenging 158/4, and then the batters flopped, managing only 145/8 to lose by 13 runs.

“When we woke up, if you look at the way that we started the game, our energies were low. Whether that’s because it’s a half-past 10 game, times have been quite difficult, I don’t know, I haven’t really put my finger on it,” Boucher said when asked what went wrong.

It was yet another early World Cup exit for South Africa, who have never managed to make the final in either the ODI or the T20 format.

“Feels gutted, to be honest. As I said, I think this squad deserved to give themselves a better chance, and yeah, unfortunately, it didn’t happen for us, which is very disappointing for me and certainly every single guy who’s in our dressing room at the moment,” said the former South Africa wicketkeeper-batter.

Asked if the Netherlands defeat was the worst of all results, Boucher said: “Probably as a coach, yes. It is quite frustrating because as a player, you can at least still have a say in the game. As a coach, you’re sort of left to leave it up to other individuals.”