You win five on the trot and then you stumble at the penultimate hurdle. For most teams, that would be a pretty good run which was bound to end some time.
But for Graeme Smith and co, that is mere confirmation of their world-class choke-ability, right?
Wrong!
It cannot be classed a choke when you come up against a side that blows hot and cold as frequently as the Pakistanis. As woeful as they were against England in the group stages, they were clinical against the Proteas.
Take Shahid Afridi for instance. He couldn’t hit it off the square all tournament, but from his first ball against the Proteas he was in the mood.
No team in world cricket, save perhaps the West Indies, is as unpredictable as Pakistan. They are like the French rugby side of international cricket. Vastly talented and quite capable of making any side look ordinary on their day. Even in winning, they almost stuffed it up.
Umar Gul only bowled three of his allotted four overs, but it didn’t matter in the end. What Gul did to Jean-Paul Duminy and Jacques Kallis was exceptional. To bowl 10 out of 12 perfect yorkers, in the heat of the moment, takes mind-boggling brilliance.
That’s the same guy who dropped a dolly off Smith, and has frequently looked amateurish in the field.
But boy can he bowl.
You simply can’t hit inswinging toe-crushers for six, no matter who you are.
The one area where the Proteas had been suspect in the World T20 was their usage of Albie Morkel. He is a great hitter of pace, but he cannot be expected to do it from a standing start. Ten minutes of Morkel will hardly affect a result, but 10 overs certainly would.
Time and again they papered over this by defending small totals. But they were found out against Pakistan, chasing a stiff target against a good attack.
Smith would have expected more of himself, and Herschelle Gibbs and AB de Villiers were simply caught up in the Afridi blitz.
So to call this match a choke would be to deny what it really was.
A simply rampant display from cricket’s notorious dark horses. They batted bravely, bowled magnificently and stormed their way to another T20 final.
For the Proteas, there is the bitter realisation that one average performance has taken more significance than the five good ones preceding it. Again they have fallen just short of glory.
Choking implies staring glory in the face, then blinking it away as you lose your nerve.
The Proteas were never in control of the game, because Afridi simply grabbed the initiative early on.
But to be honest, there is no shame in being humbled by a talented outfit that was in the mood for upsets. It’s happened before, and it most certainly will happen again.
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Unlike the ANC, the core values of the freedom fighters do not change with each leader it elects
