South Africa yet to get rid of the chokers' tag
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It looks as though Abbe de villers spoke too soon as he defended his team from being labelled as chokers and further added that they are a good side. Well without a shadow of a doubt everybody would agree to the fact that the South Africans are a good side. They always were and that is where the enigma lies.
It has happened time and again in big tournaments where the Proteas have landed as favourites and came back home without troubling the scorers too much. So on Wednesday, it was not much of a surprise to see them go down like a pack of cards in front of the England attack.
South Africa have a history of getting themselves into trouble apart from the 1992 World Cup where they lost to rain more than the opposition with 22 runs to get off 1 ball once play resumed after rain. The 1996 World Cup saw Brian Lara playing a brilliant knock which helped the Windies get to a challenging total. South Africa were going all guns blazing with 185 for 3 when they lost Hansie Cronjie which turned out to be the beginning of a slippery slope and ended up losing the match by 19 runs in the quarter-finals.
South Africa were the team to beat in the 1999 World Cup and the rest is history as most of us sitting in our bedroom were left flabbergasted as we saw Lance Klusner running himself out after a teriible mix-up with Allan Donald when the scores were tied and a win would have given them a spot in the final.
Some just shrug their shoulders, while others wonder who ever called Proteas the team to watch out for!
One would have imagined that South Africa would have learnt their lesson but they left the whole world amused as Mark Boucher blocked the final ball of the over when South Africa just needed one more run to be ahead of the Duckworth-Lewis method in the 2003 World Cup.
Then they bowed out of the 2007 World Cup in the semi-finals with their lowest ever score in a World Cup as Australia bowled them out for 149 and won by 7 wickets. This was followed by the 2011 World Cup where South Africa topped Group B with the distinction of bowling out every side they played within the 50 over limit. In the quarter final they were beaten by New Zealand after suffering a dramatic collapse and losing eight wickets for 68 runs.
Being a side with so much promise and talent one would expect South Africa to have won more than one ICC tournament which was in 1998 when it was played for the first time, as the ICC Knockout tournament.
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