And then...South Africa happened!

South Africa had made it to the Quarter-finals without having any real serious problems in the group stages. Yes they did stutter against England, but topped the group and played the fourth best team in Group A which was New Zealand. Everyone expected it be a stroll in the park with New Zealand looking not too convincing in the group stage matches .But then the South Africans have been given the tag of ‘chokers’ not for nothing .And at Mirpur on Friday ,they did it again. They choked and choked heavily under pressure. And instead of travelling to Sri Lanka for the semi-finals, they had to travel back home.

Coming into the quarter-finals,both teams had never won a knock out game in the World Cup's and one team had to break that jinx on Friday and it was New Zealand.Unbelievable as it is, any South African team that has played the World Cup has always come into the tournament as one of the major favorites to win it or at least make it to the semi-finals. Apart from the 1992 World Cup, where the rain rule left them to get 22 runs of 1 ball, something or the other has always gone wrong. In 2003 against Sri Lanka at Durban, they messed up with the par score, the Duckworth-Lewis method stating that the team needed to get one run more than the par score to win the match. Mark Boucher was communicated that they needed to get 229 which actually was the par score, and actually to win the match they needed 230. Once they got to 229, Boucher was very much pleased with it, in fact going on the punch the air. But unfortunately, it was only the par score and they were punched out of the tournament.

Any South African team that has played the World Cup since they got back to playing cricket in 1992 has always flattered to deceive. They have always started as being the hot favorites but have never lived up to their billing. Choke is one ‘C’ word that the South Africans won’t like to have in their dictionary, but unfortunately by the looks of it, it could very well be the first word in the dictionary even before the alphabet ‘A’.


On Friday, they could do no wrong till Kallis was at the crease. Things were just perfect, having bowled out New Zealand for a paltry score of 221 and then 108-2 with Kallis at his vintage best. And then he hit a very good shot which had 6 written all over it till it ran into Jacob Oram who probably took the most important catch of his cricketing career and it was a blinder. Kallis was back into the hut and then South Africa happened!! AB DeVillers, easily their best player of the tournament got run out, probably the only possible way that he could have got out, and then Duminy was cleaned up by Nathan McCullum. From 121-3 they went to 132-7 asking too much of Faf Du Plessis .He tried, but it was always going to be too much after that.


Daniel Vettori’s captaincy was something that we don’t get to see often these days. Once Kallis was out , the overs after that were treated like power plays with at least 5 fielders in the ring. The only way New Zealand was going to win this match was if they took 10 wickets. Vettori knew this very well and he kept on attacking with close in fielders staring at the batsman and the bowling was backed up by excellent fielding, Martin Guptill being the best of the lot. Jacob Oram showed why he is so dangerous with the ball ending up with 4 wickets and the most crucial catch of Jacques Kallis to turn the match in the favor or the Kiwis.

No one gave the black caps a chance before the match, but they came out trumps. They now face Sri Lanka at the lion’s den itself at the Premadasa and no one is giving them a chance again! That’s expected. But then the Kiwis are on a roll, they have knocked off one ‘S’ already in the form of South Africa , can they get the better of another ‘S’? . Only time will tell.