This time the Proteas deserve no mercy

So on Saturday the same old same old, hey? And How! I started getting worried on Wednesday when a friend said to me, of all the opposition, he would have picked New Zealand. Then I read on Facebook about the certainty with which SA supporters were treating this fixture, thinking to myself that this is a one-off and anything goes in knock-out cricket. I was still positive though.

Why was I positive? Well, psychologically I thought the Proteas had shaken the dreaded “C” word. We have really spoken a lot about it and, ask any psychologist, it’s very therapeutic to put the “issue” out there and make it real (blah blah blah). I thought the Indian victory had done the team an immense amount of good and I felt the combination meant we had finally shaken the horrid label. You know what Thought did?

So with a 100 runs on the board and with Amla freakishly in the hut, SA supporters could have justifiably still felt comfortable. We delivered a solid and professional bowling performance, and in keeping the Black Caps to 221 — in this day and age of pajama cricket — this is considered an easy trot into the semifinal at 4.2 runs an over? I commented just then to my fellow supporters, add two wickets to that score and it doesn’t look that good any more, does it? This comes from the great English commentator Geoffrey Boycott (whose absence is noted) — did I tempt fate or worse still, activate it? Four or five overs later and there we were … then Faf du Plessis sold AB “The Baby” down the river badly and this was the beginning of the end, the writing was on the wall. The psychology then was “Oh no. Not again. This cannot be happening to our team again … ” notice the negatives in that focus. Well it happened and in disgusting fashion.

To add to the negative experience, enter Kyle “Prat in Chief” Mills off the drinks bench in support of his silly and irresponsible captain, Daniel Vettori, who both felt that they needed to remind Faf du Plessis of his high-quality sales ability. Faf was having nothing of it and displayed his anger by pushing Mills before the referee — sorry, the umpire — who separated the scuffle. Well done to the ICC for appropriately dealing with Mills (a fine of 120% of his match fee) and Vettori (90%) while Faf has to pay up half his fee. The other half should go to an SA cricket kitty as a fine for a stupid mistake.

Ultimately, what was ironic for me was when the final catch of the SA innings was caught by a substitute with the surname How. How did the Proteas let this happen? How did a batting order of Smith, Amla, Kallis, De Villiers, Duminy and Du Plessis allow this to happen? This time the Proteas deserve no mercy. If they feel bad for losing, good, they should. The country mobilised behind them and we lost to a team that was not better than us. We lost to ourselves. We lost to choking. These are professionals who have nothing else to do but leave everything on the field with guts and glory? And How? Unfortunately no matter how this gets spun, SA cricket let me down and from what I can gather from discussions with friends, family and on the social networks, they let a lot of people down.

I would love to call for answers but what they going to say? Time to work for 2015? We build for the next T20 World Cup? The answer is, we choked and we need to forget this glorified seven ODI cricket tour and worry about next inbound tour to SA.

Am I left debating my cricket supporting loyalty? And How. I would never support any other country but I also can choose to not support the Proteas. It will be pretty hard that though. I am sure I will build a bridge.

Am I angry? Am I showing no mercy? And How!

So should you.