Dale Steyn opens up on South Africa's 2015 Auckland heartache

Former South African speedster Dale Steyn opened up about his side’s emotions after their semi-final exit in the 2015 ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup. Steyn recalled that the team moved on from the defeat in the knockout stage within 24 hours and didn't talk about it later.

In the 2015 semi-final, the Proteas suffered a defeat after New Zealand's Grant Elliott produced a dramatic finish and knocked them out of the tournament and Steyn was at the centre of that defeat.

"I think we dealt with it really well in that 24 hours, and then we went home and everyone went our own way. But getting together the next time as a South African team and walking back to the dressing room, I felt like we hadn't spoken about what happened few months ago. And we needed to make sure that that elephant was out of that room. It was certainly still in the room for what I felt was a long time,” Steyn told ESPNcricinfo. 

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The 40-year-old went on to say that after the game he used to "put a smile on his face and be a professional,” in front of young cricketers. He also stated that he realised that as a player everyone should accept wins as well as defeats. He added that everyone was upset but they managed to move on realising these things will happen in the sport.

"I went into the dressing room and I sat down and I was like 'this is where you have to be the true professional you are. You are a senior player.' I went around to some of the younger guys, the Quinton de Kocks. Morne [Morkel] was incredibly upset, visibly upset even on TV

"The next morning there was a group message, 'guys, there's a breakfast planned somewhere', and we all got together. Then it was as if the night before never happened. We tried to move on as quickly as we could. A year or two years after that had happened, did we start to address it as a team. As individuals, everyone dealt with it their own way. But as a team, we hadn't unraveled it or spoken about it,” he added.

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