Have South Africa taken a big step in removing the CHOKERS tag

[KiWiNiNjA]

Originally Posted by smalishah84

I wouldn't include that as part of the choke.........

Well, he did drop the World Cup.

[8ankitj]

Incredibly bad luck also follows them around. Amla and Kallis can consider themselves unlucky for their dismissal. ABD too to a lesser extent.

[Jono]

New Zealand v South Africa, World Cup 2011: South Africa need to face their reality | Cricket Features | ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 | ESPN Cricinfo

What will be important is that they accept the reality of it, that they see it for what it was - a faltering when things became too difficult - and not sugarcoat it as anything else. If South Africa are able to confront the mental aspect of the game head on, and not hide behind gimmicks, there's every chance the wounds can heal fast. The danger will arise if they don't, and if they allow the chokers' tag to be hung around their necks, while silently trying to shrug it off and publicly pretending it's not there. Then, it will become a noose again.

Denial helps nothing.

[Spark]

Originally Posted by 8ankitj

Incredibly bad luck also follows them around. Amla and Kallis can consider themselves unlucky for their dismissal. ABD too to a lesser extent.

ABdV can call himself unlucky but it was a different sort of luck - that was a massive cockup by Faf. Kallis's shot was utterly unnecessary.

[pup11]

Originally Posted by honestbharani

In 1999, they needed 1 off 4 balls with a wicket in hand.. None of this Warne magic ****.. As good as he was, RSA had no right tieing that game..

They were cruising at one stage before Warne ripped through their top order and the only reason Saffers came that close in the end was due to some late-order brilliance from Klusner.

The fact of the matter is that, that was and still remains for me the best game of one day cricket I've ever seen, simply because the balance of the scales kept shifting right through the 100 overs.

[Jono]

Yes it was a great game, no one is saying it wasn't.

But the choke for SA happened in the last over. Not before that. Got nothing to do with Warne.

[honestbharani]

Originally Posted by Jono

New Zealand v South Africa, World Cup 2011: South Africa need to face their reality | Cricket Features | ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 | ESPN Cricinfo

What will be important is that they accept the reality of it, that they see it for what it was - a faltering when things became too difficult - and not sugarcoat it as anything else. If South Africa are able to confront the mental aspect of the game head on, and not hide behind gimmicks, there's every chance the wounds can heal fast. The danger will arise if they don't, and if they allow the chokers' tag to be hung around their necks, while silently trying to shrug it off and publicly pretending it's not there. Then, it will become a noose again.

Denial helps nothing.

The guy made good points but he is stupid if he thinks RSA were in control of their chase against India in the group game.. **** me, but 14 off the last over, I would back the bowling side 9 times out of 10...

[smalishah84]

Originally Posted by Jono

Yes it was a great game, no one is saying it wasn't.

But the choke for SA happened in the last over. Not before that. Got nothing to do with Warne.

awta

[honestbharani]

Originally Posted by pup11

They were cruising at one stage before Warne ripped through their top order and the only reason Saffers came that close in the end was due to some late-order brilliance from Klusner.

The fact of the matter is that, that was and still remains for me the best game of one day cricket I've ever seen, simply because the balance of the scales kept shifting right through the 100 overs.

All that is true but Warne is NOT the reason they tied the game.. If you are at it, I would say Pollock bowled even better than Warne in that game... In the end, it didn't matter. They tied the game coz they choked, else they would have won. Simple as.

[GingerFurball]

Originally Posted by pup11

I hope people are not ticking this game as some classic case of choking, the fact of the matter is that South Africa in the history of their cricket have only choked once and that was during the famous 99 worldcup semi-final, on other ocassions they have either been screwed by the weather, destiny or good cricket played by their opposition.

In a game where a team scores 220 odd and then wins by 50 runs clearly suggests that they pretty much walked all over their opponents so to bring out this whole choker thing for this game doesn't make sense.

New Zealand had an attack that suited that wicket very well and once the ball got old and soft South Africa just struggled, I also said this prior to the tournament that South Africa are pretty light on batting in their middle to lower middle order and that proved to be their achilles heel in both games they lost.

World Cup 2007 semi was an enormous choke.

Australia turned the heat up pre-match, and South Africa's response to the pressure was for the top order to a man throwing their wickets away.

[Prad100w]

Have South Africa taken a big step in removing the CHOKERS tag?

Yes, they have. Evident from the QF result.

[Jono]

Originally Posted by GingerFurball

World Cup 2007 semi was an enormous choke.

Australia turned the heat up pre-match, and South Africa's response to the pressure was for the top order to a man throwing their wickets away.

Yep definitely. Earlier in the thread I linked to the articles where Hayden and Ponting played some of the greatest pre-match mind games I have ever seen.

[BeeGee]

Originally Posted by honestbharani

lol.. I don't subscribe entirely to that thought either. I juz meant that is what these guys generally mean by the C word. And quite honestly, I do think RSA are more prone to letting the situation get the better of their nerves than the other teams...

From the BeeGee concise cricketing dictionary:

Choke: To snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. To spectacularly fail from a position of strength, when appearing to be cruising to victory.
For more information see the entry: South Africa.

[honestbharani]

Originally Posted by Prad100w

Have South Africa taken a big step in removing the CHOKERS tag?

Yes, they have. Evident from the QF result.

yeah. they have removed that tag.. They have removed that word itself.. Chokers should be replaced by the South African Cricket Team in dictionaries henceforth..

[Jono]

Lol.

There are two types of chokes though.

One like yesterday, where they were in a dominant position and just threw it away when the finish line was reasonably close.

The other was like the 07 World Cup. SA losing to Australia in the final was not surprising. Australia were favourites heading into the match. But the manner in which they wilted under the pressure of a semi was a choke.

And for people who say "why don't you credit the opposition instead of calling it a choke", they aren't mutually exclusive. Very rarely a team will choke and lose despite the opposition playing ****. The opposition plays well to TAKE ADVANTAGE of the choke. NZ did that brilliantly. They were awesome in the field, they played on the SA fragility by sledging the **** out of them, and they went for the kill when they got on top.

Kiwis were excellent.