Boucher says Proteas' poor World Cup history is a mental hurdle: 'It's not the only upset'

Outgoing Proteas coach Mark Boucher admits that failing at multiple ICC events has "naturally" played on the team's mind after South Africa crashed out of the T20 World Cup in Australia.

The Proteas produced a forgettable performance on Sunday as they suffered an embarrassing 13-run defeat to the Netherlands at Adelaide Oval.

Needing a win against the minnow team to reach the semi-finals, history repeated itself and it resulted in another failed World Cup campaign for the Proteas.

South Africa failed to chased 159 and lost wickets at regular intervals to end on 145-8.

It was the Netherlands' first-ever T20 win against the Proteas and resulted in SA's shocking exit from the T20 World Cup in Australia.

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Boucher, who has been involved in three T20 World Cup campaigns as a player, says it is difficult to explain why the Proteas continue to fall short at every ICC event.

However, he acknowledged the Netherlands were just better on the day.

"I think the more you don't do well in World Cups, I think it does start playing in your head a bit. I think that's just natural," Boucher told reporters on Sunday.

"I don't think that's been the case of late. We've played in some tight games in World Cups and we've actually won them.

"Having a look at that, using the past, we've tended to lose those games. We were never really in this game today, to be fair, so it's not like you look at it and go, 'from the start of the game on paper, yes, we should have won the game', but the game is not played on paper," he continued.

"It's actually played out there in the middle... [when] we got out there, we just didn't start off well. I think they batted well. They were