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so..

shankar

International Debutant
I think there was bit of a choke when the spinners came on, but they recovered and played as well as they could have from thereon.
 

Naumaan

First Class Debutant
Pakistan played well & big match pressure on South Africa, wasn't a choke honestly, you would feel for South Africa
 

Sanz

Hall of Fame Member
Pakistan Outplayed South Africa. Younis Khan made good decisions starting from winning the Toss and electing to bat, sending in Afridi @ 3 and Saving Umar Gul for the crunch time. With a little luck his decisions and the risks he took paid off.

It is not a choke, SA were never in a winning position in this match.
 

rivera213

U19 Vice-Captain
I can't take anything away from Pakistan.

To be fair, whenever they've needed to win a match they've played well.

Big kudos to Gul. The man has nerves of steel and Amir for a 17 year old has impressed me. He's already bowling mid to late 80's and hasn't completely grown. Look at what happened to Broad in the last few months in regard to pace. Promising talent, Wasim needs to grab hold of him and become his mentor.
 

silentstriker

The Wheel is Forever
Choking would be if they were on their way to win and then collapsed (either bowling or batting). Not the case here.
 

Noble One

International Vice-Captain
Outplayed by Pakistan? Yes. Choke? No.

If the South African players simply bowled full-tosses all innings, and then batted without any application; then they would have choked. As it turned out, South Africa bowled well, batted with a target in mind; and just ended up falling short of a team that had a couple of starring individual performances.
 

pasag

RTDAS
Of course it was a choke. It was a MASSIVE choke. They had what most described by most as the best team on paper and they couldn't even make it to the finals. That's the definition of a quality choke.
 

BoyBrumby

Englishman
Pakistan Outplayed South Africa. Younis Khan made good decisions starting from winning the Toss and electing to bat, sending in Afridi @ 3 and Saving Umar Gul for the crunch time. With a little luck his decisions and the risks he took paid off.

It is not a choke, SA were never in a winning position in this match.
Disagree. SA were favourites at least twice. Restricting Pakistan to 149/4 after they'd been 120/3 after 15 put them in the box seat and they were 39/0 after 5 themselves, comfortably up with the asking rate.

Also, Younus only allowing Gul 3 overs was a howler IMHO. He got away with it, but to leave the star seamer from the entire tournament an over shy was a boo-boo, surely?
 

shivfan

Banned
It's a mixture of both....

The Saffer bowling has been great throughout the tournament. However, the batting has not been impressive, despite the list of stellar names. In six matches, they only passed 150 twice. That's just not good enough....

The bowling is what carried them so far. However, Afridi took them on, and when the Saffers were set 150 to win, predictably, they couldn't chase it down.

The Saffers need to take a long, hard look at their batting line-up for this format.
 

alternative

Cricket Web Content Updater
Definitely a Choke. The best team on paper by miles and they outplayed a lot of quality opposition and come finals, they are back to their routine.
 

BoyBrumby

Englishman
Daily Mirror in no doubt. Check that first paragraph: :laugh:



Although you'll also see Fat Gray couldn't even get that right... :ph34r:
 

Athlai

Not Terrible
Smith: "Every time we lose an important game, that word, chokers, is thrown around,"

Because you LOSE IMPORTANT GAMES YA DINGUS.
 

Xuhaib

International Coach
Don't know about choking but the way Pakistan played yesterday I think any of the current team would have struggled beating them.
 

Jono

Virat Kohli (c)
When are are 39/0 after 5 overs chasing 150 to win, and have Gibbs, Devillers, Duminy, Boucher, Morkel and van Der Merwe to come... and you lose, its is a choke.

They weren't the only team to choke this tournament, but just like in 2007, they were undefeated and then lost a must-win game to be knocked out. That's the way tournaments work.
 

andruid

Cricketer Of The Year
Obviuosly only South Africa lose important matches. England did not choke against the Windies, or the Netherlands, Australia did not choke against Sri Lanka, and if the Widies-Sri Lanka match goes down to the wire it will still not be a choke.

It seems the only qualification for saying a choke was involved here is South Africa being the losing team
:dry:
 

Briony

International Debutant
They might have tightened up a bit at crucial times but it wasn't one of their worst chokes as Pakistan had nothing to lose and played better. On paper SA team looked good but their batting was a bit off balance with too many playing as accumulators. Nobody seemed to have the firepower to match Afridi. The so-called big-hitter Albertus failed again. And AB has only made runs in unimportant matches this tournament. Smith is simply too fat to be an international leader. Over the tournament they played very well though and can feel prouder than some of the other teams of their overall performance. There can only be one winner after all.
 

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