"South Africa were mentally weak here and against Pakistan as well. I don't think we are a bad cricket team".
Before India's victory against South Africa each of the teams had one victory in the group phase.
Kagiso Rabada was three years old on that happy day. "We just want to take one game at a time". Still, South Africa's superstars barely shone.
ABD had his captaincy questioned but ensured that he has no plans of giving up his captaincy anytime soon and would like to continue playing until the 2019 World Cup.
He added: "We saw a little bit of the conditions".
Du Plessis and De Kock also had a steady partnership of 40 runs for the second wicket before things went all awry.
But his bat wasn't‚ despite a full-length‚ and he was run out.
Miller was sacrificed after the umpires parsed the details of what had happened.
But as has become custom for the Proteas at major limited-overs tournaments, they faltered at a crucial junction as du Plessis, not for the first time in his ODI career, committed a major "error of judgement". He said, "I was not at all frustrated that I did not get such an opportunity in the earlier matches".
He had made16 runs off 12 balls but was caught out of his ground as he dived to beat Pandya's throw, only to come up short as Dhoni whipped off the bails. "The side have been missing that spark, or that intensity to their play that characterises South Africa cricket.The positivity to our play and the energy that we've come to expect from this group of players just hasn't been there", he lamented.
You don't see three run-outs in an innings that often.
Smith opened up on his team's form and current performance and said the Proteas missed the spark in the prestigious tournament. Quinny [de Kock] is an opener, he gets hundreds for a living and all of us are to blame.
"We've just got to treat this as just another game because we know that the pressure is on obviously", Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews said.
"The way we lost was the most disappointing part of it", he said. We had a couple of sessions here, and we are very much prepared for that.
"I've not thought about what we are going to think about our next tournament".
Both captains preached calm for the decider, but it was South Africa who failed to show it.
Did he even want to?
When asked by a senior South African scribe as to why he still wants to be the captain, a sullen faced De Villiers replied: "Because I am a good captain!" "We can feel that confidence and energy in the change room because of a bowling performance like this, and we surely would like to take that forward into the semis", he said.