The latest chapter in South Africa’s sorry Cricket World Cup history was put down to a case of stage fright by former stars on Wednesday as the Proteas once again suffered semifinal heartache at the hands of Australia.
The much-vaunted South African top order, including Jacques Kallis and Graeme Smith, were all back inside the pavilion within the first 10 overs as they collapsed to 27-5 in a sequence that left some of their former teammates stunned.
”The first hour was some of the craziest cricket South Africa have ever played,” said former batsman Daryl Cullinan.
South Africa’s convener of selectors, Haroot Lorgat, said the wickets had been ”very poor, very soft dismissals”.
”Nobody was up to it today,” he said on Supersport television.
Lorgat feared the team had been undone by nerves despite claims by coach Mickey Arthur they were taking everything in their stride rather than be weighed down by past failures, including their 1999 semifinal exit to Australia.
”I wonder how much tension was in them despite what Mickey was saying about their calmness, because I just did not see what I was expecting to see,” he said.
Rethink needed
His view was echoed by one-time skipper Kepler Wessels, who suspected current captain Graeme Smith’s pre-match confidence was all a show. ”You’re always going to be uptight, nervous. That would have been a common thread, to put on a united front, but everyone would have been pretty tense.”
Wessels, who also played for Australia when South Africa were frozen out of international cricket during the apartheid era, called for a major rethink of the Proteas’ whole approach to one-day cricket.
The Proteas have been widely criticised for their lack of a match-winning spin-bowler and once again took on the Australians with an all-pace attack that showed little sign of penetration.
While Australia’s pace-bowlers did most of the damage, their spinner Brad Hogg conceded only 24 runs in his 10 overs.
”The Australians outplayed us in every department,” said Wessels. ”We cannot continue to play such predictable cricket. It’s so easy to play South Africa.”
South Africa had gone into the tournament as the number-one-ranked team in the world, but Lorgat was among the first to acknowledge they had been completely outplayed by the side they had dislodged from the top spot. ”Today we were just flat, just completely nowhere in the game.”
Former batsman Adam Bacher said the gap between the two teams was almost embarrassing. ”It was boys against men,” he said on public television. ”They taught us a cricket lesson.”
‘We didn’t choke’
However, the team defended their aggressive batting tactics and denied they had panicked.
”I don’t think we played reckless shots and threw wickets away,” coach Mickey Arthur told a news conference. ”We needed to disrupt Australia’s momentum somehow and get on top and needed to get on top quick.”
Captain Graeme Smith added: ”We pride ourselves on these big days, but we didn’t play well. I definitely don’t think we choked. We just weren’t good enough. We were outplayed and you have got to give credit [to Australia]. The top order just got out to good bowling, maybe one or two loose shots.”
Smith himself was guilty of throwing his wicket away when the left-handed opener was bowled attempting a wild shot against paceman Nathan Bracken in the third over.
”Our top order has played quite positive throughout the tournament,” Smith said. ”The ball did swing a bit up front, which they used to their advantage. Once we became three down, it became really difficult to wrest the initiative back.” — Sapa-AFP, Reuters