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

[Your mama]

i think players like kallis should be simply be thrown out of the SA team. When amla was dismiised in such freak circumstances it was as if the cricketing Gods were warning SA that hey this is not a forgeone conclusion.

At 102-2 with AB and kallis at the crease, with a middle and lower order team that is weak, what do kallis the man with the most experience do?he plays a needless pullshot. when the required rate was only 4 runs an over.


Kallis is a selfish moron. He played for his half century and thought yeah job done, lets get this game done and dusted. That type of shot you play when you are 20 odd runs from the target.And my word Duminy. Has anyone seen a player that just crumbles at the slightest hint of pressure? He's a failure. I am sorry but this type of game was tailor made for someone like ashwell prince. but hey i guess he's not flashy enough.And the less said about Du plessis the better. The thing was that there were warning signs given. They even lost to england in the same set of circumstances. But the SA thought at the 100 run mark that hey everything was going fine and dandy.

The only conclusion here is that they are fools. Only fools do not learn from their mistakes.

 

[BeeGee]

Beating India chasing almost 300. People expected SA might choke especially after their first 4 wickets went down.

Can this be a sign of bigger things to come i.e. putting behind the chokers tag for good?

I'm going to have to say a big fat NO on that one. It'll be inscribed on their tombstones.

 

[Spark]

i think players like kallis should be simply be thrown out of the SA team. When amla was dismiised in such freak circumstances it was as if the cricketing Gods were warning SA that hey this is not a forgeone conclusion.

At 102-2 with AB and kallis at the crease, with a middle and lower order team that is weak, what do kallis the man with the most experience do?he plays a needless pullshot. when the required rate was only 4 runs an over.


Kallis is a selfish moron. He played for his half century and thought yeah job done, lets get this game done and dusted. That type of shot you play when you are 20 odd runs from the target.And my word Duminy. Has anyone seen a player that just crumbles at the slightest hint of pressure? He's a failure. I am sorry but this type of game was tailor made for someone like ashwell prince. but hey i guess he's not flashy enough.And the less said about Du plessis the better. The thing was that there were warning signs given. They even lost to england in the same set of circumstances. But the SA thought at the 100 run mark that hey everything was going fine and dandy.

The only conclusion here is that they are fools. Only fools do not learn from their mistakes.

Duminy's shots under pressure have been truly horrifying but... MCG?

 

[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.

 

[GotSpin]

Wrong. South Africa have been choking in Test matches and ODis since they get readmitted back into cricket

 

[Burgey]

Duminy's shots under pressure have been truly horrifying but... MCG?

He wasn't really under pressure in Melbourne though, in the sense the match situation was so ridiculously dire that it was almost Botham-Dilley-esque.

Not to that extreme, of course, but not dissimilar.

 

[andyc]

Well to be fair to South Africa they have:
a) won the Champions Trophy which is a global tournament
b) been the first team to win a test series in India in more than a decade.
c) pulled of the greatest ODI chase of all time
d) been the first team win a test series in Australia in more than a decade after pulling off a sensational chase

So it's not as if they have never done great things under pressure. But yeah their World Cup record in knockout games is astonishingly bad and until they win a world cup they will never erase the choker tag. Fortunately for them, they also get a TT world cup every other year and winning one of them would go a long way to erase the choker tag too.

Australia tour of India 2004/05 | Cricket news, live scores, fixtures, features and statistics on ESPN Cricinfo ?

 

[KiWiNiNjA]

At least we're unique. Other teams lose because they play bad cricket. We don't.

A bit of a puzzling statement.

 

[Spark]

Australia tour of India 2004/05 | Cricket news, live scores, fixtures, features and statistics on ESPN Cricinfo ?

Strangely forgotten tour that. Should have been one for ages in terms of a high-water mark, but bizarrely never talked about.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Strangely forgotten tour that. Should have been one for ages in terms of a high-water mark, but bizarrely never talked about.

ICC plot, tbh.

Nah, seriously in retrospect was it the highwater mark of the great Australian teams? Continued to be great for another couple of years afterwards, but were maybe on the downhill slope slightly.

Gradient has increased exponentially last coupla years, obvz.

 

[Dissector]

Um you are aware that South Africa beat India in India in 2000 : 2-0 right? Talk about a forgotten series.

 

[Spark]

ICC plot, tbh.

Nah, seriously in retrospect was it the highwater mark of the great Australian teams? Continued to be great for another couple of years afterwards, but were maybe on the downhill slope slightly.

Gradient has increased exponentially last coupla years, obvz.

I'd say it was one of two, 5-0 being the obvious other. It was the one thing the other great Australian sides couldn't do.

 

[honestbharani]

Australia tour of India 2004/05 | Cricket news, live scores, fixtures, features and statistics on ESPN Cricinfo ?

lol, Candy.. but RSA whitewashed us in 99-2000, under Hansie Cronje, slamming the final nail into Sachin's captaincy coffin.

 

[andyc]

lol, Candy.. but RSA whitewashed us in 99-2000, under Hansie Cronje, slamming the final nail into Sachin's captaincy coffin.

Ha, whoops. Only a two Test series though so am claiming it doesn't count

 

[smash84]

lol, Candy.. but RSA whitewashed us in 99-2000, under Hansie Cronje, slamming the final nail into Sachin's captaincy coffin.

Forgotten with Cronje I suppose

 

[jot1]

A bit of a puzzling statement.

As if we never play bad cricket to lose? We always play brilliant cricket. We only lose by choking. Which demeans the other teams brilliant effort when they beat us because saying we choked means we lost it they didn't win it by playing better cricket. Which is crap. NZ bowled better and batted better than us and won the match.

 

[honestbharani]

As if we never play bad cricket to lose? We always play brilliant cricket. We only lose by choking. Which demeans the other teams brilliant effort when they beat us because saying we choked means we lost it they didn't win it by playing better cricket. Which is crap. NZ bowled better and batted better than us and won the match.

Choking doesn't mean you never play bad cricket.. It juz means you ALWAYS play bad cricket when the pressure is on..

 

[jot1]

Choking doesn't mean you never play bad cricket.. It juz means you ALWAYS play bad cricket when the pressure is on..

Always when the pressure is on? I'm not even going to go there. I'm just going to think about India and SA just recently, and Australia and SA 5 years ago, and some other matches inbetween. I do know what you mean, though. We do tend to play bad cricket when the pressure is on, but most of the other teams do too. I just don't believe we do it more than other teams.

 

[honestbharani]

Always when the pressure is on? I'm not even going to go there. I'm just going to think about India and SA just recently, and Australia and SA 5 years ago, and some other matches inbetween. I do know what you mean, though. We do tend to play bad cricket when the pressure is on, but most of the other teams do too. I just don't believe we do it more than other teams.

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...

 

[ankitj]

A good chronology of SA chokes: Memorable South African defeats: Struggling for breath ...

Can add the 1st and 3rd T20 world cup too.