Heads scratched after SA’s final hopes dashed
BY almost every measure South Africa and not West Indies should have been Australia’s opponents in Sunday’s tri-series final in Bridgetown in Barbados.
But the men in maroon made it to their own party at Kensington Oval‚ leaving South Africa to wonder where it had all gone wrong.
“It’s going to be a good game‚” AB de Villiers had told reporters in Bridgetown on Friday.
“We’ll see what happens. Both teams are playing pretty well. Both teams have good match winners in their side. So it would be nice to maybe just sit back and watch a game of cricket.”
But on Sunday, De Villiers would have sat back and watched Australia play the way many of his compatriots would like his team to play more often.
Not for the first time‚ he would have seen the home side make beatable opponents‚ this time by 58 runs.
And that after SA faced the identical Windies XI at the same venue on Friday and belly- flopped out of the running for a place in the final with what their captain called a horrible performance.
Well might South Africans wonder why they were not slumped on the couch at 3am on Monday blearily willing their team towards the trophy.
As a batting team, South Africa had the second-highest run rate in the tournament and their bowlers took wickets at the second-lowest average. Australia led both of those lists, with the Windies lagging last.
South Africa’s bowlers were the most economical of the lot.
“We started something special in the last year‚ after the World Cup‚” De Villiers said of the one-day side.
“So there’s definitely a belief in the camp we can win from any position and make it work from anywhere. It’s sad we couldn’t do that [on Friday] and in this series I don’t think we were close to our best throughout.”
It was indeed disappointing SA again performed like a team smaller than the sum of their parts.
Until they fix that problem, this will not be the last time they disappointment themselves and their fans.