March 28, 2011. The demolition job of South Africa’s lower middle order by New Zealand in the World Cup quarter-final – or the Proteas’ implosion – depending on which way you look at things, was a painful spectacle to watch. And the most painful thing was that it was the last thing I wanted to happen.
The Proteas had been dynamic, they were willing to ring the changes and, apart from the regular omission of Tsotsobe with which I did not agree, their bowling selection was spot on (and the Proteas attack was rated as the best at the World Cup by many experts, by the way). I was rooting for this new-look team to do the business. That soft lower middle order was always going to be the Achilles heel, but we were starting to believe the boys could do it.
And, let’s not forget, we bowled and fielded well against New Zealand, while skipper Graeme Smith, although disappointing with the bat, did a great job rotating his bowlers and dictating the field placings.
Mental frailties, the horrible “c” word, selection (Boucher, anybody)? whatever you want to call it, it’s a damn shame that things fell apart (again). Perhaps, and this is not a very popular sentiment right now, we should all be big enough to take it on the chin and say, “Oh well, we just weren’t good enough!”.
In the field – once they had got rid of Kallis – the Kiwis were superb, pressing closer and closer, refusing any easy singles and mentally turning up the pressure on the batsmen. The athleticism of big men like Oram and Guptill was certainly inspirational for their whole team.
News24 reports that Gerald Majola, the Cricket South Africa chief executive, has admitted the team will struggle to shed their chokers’ tag after the collapse which cost them the World Cup quarter-final.
“We’ve always had this chokers tag with us; unfortunately we’ve allowed it to stick. We haven’t applied ourselves,” he said in Colombo, where he will watch the semi-final between New Zealand and Sri Lanka on Tuesday. “We have to accept the problem and then deal with it.”
South Africa left no stone unturned to address what Majola calls “the problem” before coming to this tournament.
They picked a varied and dynamic team, which they used creatively. They employed the same psychologist who worked with the national rugby team when they achieved World Cup glory in 2007.
But alas, it was not to be, the game goes on and South Africa now needs to look forward and, I hope, back some of the exciting new prospects that have made a major impact on the team. – Garth Johnstone
1 Comment
Easier said than done, maybe our team should of thought of the game while they were still in the game. The problem with sports nowadays is is there is so much politics, it’s all about money, and doesn’t come from the heart anymore like it used to. Very disturbing, generally speaking.