When you start to nit pick over single games then it means there is nothing in your argument. Tendulkar 'choked' spectacularly in the WC final that Ponting bossed. Tendulkar 'choked' again in 2011 but Dhoni got him over the line. I don't mark him down for that as he had over 400 other games in his career. Once I start to use a handful of 'big' tournaments against Devilliers being ATG I should realise that means that he is probably already there.
Tendulkar didn't choke in 2011 final. He ''failed". There is a massive difference. Malinga got him out with a ball tailing away after being hit for a few glorious boundaries.
You are the one nitpicking, you are using a single innings, using the 2011 final to evaluate him when he has already performed in Quarter Finals and Semi Finals (of that WC and previous WCs).Without Tendulkar's runs in quarters and semis of 2011, India would've lost the WC.
And he did it at the age of 38, after having played and endured the rigours of international cricket for 22 years. TWENTY TWO! Find another batsman who has even come close to performing at that level at that age and after more than 2 decades. There is none and no one can ever manage to replicate it. So foolishly looking at things out of context makes you look siller.
ABD simply hasn't taken SA over the line in ANY semifinal or quarterfinal or a big game in ANY ICC tournament! NOT ONE! You are the one nit picking and highlighting a single innings. I am using a big sample! Find me a single innings where ABD took South Africa over the line in a knockout game or a virtual knockout game towards the end of group stage.. in ANY ICC tournament. He has had no match winning innings. He has been a part of more than a dozen such games and zero standout in my mind from his batting point of view. And all those games ended in defeats.
He has not been able to correct South Africa's record of failing in every big game, in fact he has been part of teams who have made this record considerably worse. A big player normally corrects and elevates his team to greater heights. Not ABD.
Tendulkar put India on the map. India was a crap or at best a mediocre team, he carried the team and put them on the map and then grew and grew from there and eventually India became a dominant side him being their tailsman.
South Africa have always been a dominant side, yet ABD has not done anything special in limited overs tournaments to take South Africa higher, in fact he has done the opposite. Being their tailsman, he has been part of so many crushing defeats when it mattered. He has not enhanced the legacy of South Africa in limited overs. Tainted it much much more in fact.
Tendulkar elevated India to great heights. Kohli is elevating India even higher and like never before. Thats the hallmark of ATG batsman. Pointing too took Australia higher and higher. ABD .....
Cricket is not just an individual sport, its also collective and ABD has not done anything special despite being a special player to dig SA out a hole, in fact they have dug the hole deeper and deeper. When I think SA and limited overs, I think of a loooong list of failures. Thus can't call ABD an ATG. No current and recent South African can be called an ATG in shorter formats.
If I were to dig their record up in big games in the past 15 years, it would be something like 15+ defeats and maybe one win. Even Bangladesh probably has better record than that.