equatorIf you want proof that Twenty20 is a proper form of cricket, look no further than South Africa choking.
If the form of cricket was all piss and giggles, South Africa would have crushed it like a big.
They didn’t.
While the talent of Afridi and Gul was the over riding factor in the victory, no one should down play the part that South Africa’s choke put in.
The innings of Jacques Kallis was positively awe inspiring, while other batsmen would have looked at the situation and said, “I know I am the Anchor here, but I see that the other batsman is struggling and the game is getting away from me, I better do something here”. Jacques seemed to say, if I play my cards right there is a not out in this for me.
JP Duminy was almost as bad. When you are batting with a cadaverous batsman and you have Albie and Boucher behind you, surely you have to step it up a bit. Sure JP tried, but he just didn’t try hard enough, There were so many times he should have just hit out or got out.
This was a partnership made in T20 hell.
And once Kallis went out, Albie got to face 4 balls.
That was it.
South Africa were out.
Graeme Smith said they were just beaten by a better team, and he was right.
A team that handled the pressure, performed at a much higher level, had match winners, didn’t have a innings paralysing partnership and didn’t choke.
This is one of the days that people love T20.
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Good old Fat Jacques – never met a not out he didn’t like.
It was classic – Smith had given up way before the end, just sitting back in his chair with a sickly grin on his face, thinking ‘yep, Jacques fancies a not out here’.
theoldbatsman’s last blog post..Call them Ishmael
you AB fanboy you…couldn’t find any kinks in his claim as the best, could you?! ; )
Smith lost it for them again. He’s too fat and tactically poor.
The humans are dead
Yay, dead, dead, dead.
We used poisonous gasses
(With traces of lead)
To poison their asses.
(Actually their lungs)
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Flight of the Conchords
Nothing more needs to be said
Actually sad,the bots lost.
But their legacy shall live on.
The best ones as a rule,
have to lose.
And that is sad,
but true.
KartD’s last blog post..ok…
Glorious innings from Jacques. Shades of the group match against Straya in the 07 World Cup. South Africa cruising at 0-150 odd in the 21st over. Then de Villiers gets run out from a ridiculous direct hit from the boundary by Watson to bring Jacquesy boy to the crease. That’s when the fun started. A shame he missed out on the not out in that match too.
Peter Della Penna’s last blog post..If I ever move to India, I want to own an effigy store.
Kallis looks like Norton’s boss in ‘fight club’ movie
Yep Kallis and Smith are fatboys who will never win a cup for their country. At last Jacques can bat, something Smith can only wish he could do. what a dud!!!
I’m out of here. Nobody seems to think that South Africans care. We’re just robotic cricketers who choke in world cups.
It’s taken me until today to stop the tears, and a mere 10 minutes to start the heartache again. The scars run deep and will in all likely hood never heal. Smith has captained well, grown as a man and a cricketer but the “fans” will bay for his blood again. Jacques has reinvented himself in T20, played match-winning roles and the “fans” will simply say – poor show fat boy. New talent has been unearthed, spin nurtured, the game grown tremendously in a country with enough division and historic hatred to fill the world a million times, bridges built to unite a country fighting from a legacy of hatred and murder in the name of political and racial advantage; and all the fans and world watchers can say is: South Africa Choke Again.
Worse – most of these “fans” baying for blood and belittling the players will be from their own country. Seriously – there are some fans who feel every slung stone.
Oh, and Abigail – “At last Jacques can bat, something Smith can only wish he could do”. *cough* bullshit *cough* get some facts and knowledge about the game before making idiotic statements. It may not be pretty, but Smith can bat just fucking fine.
Alex, Never said the people of South Africa don’t care, I’m sure you guys do. But this team, even with its new found spinners, are robotic. And as for Jacque’s remodelling himself as a 2020 opener, he may now make the runs, but he still has no 4th or 5th gear, and he never will because he protects his wicket like it is an angel from heaven. He was set, he had to go, he didn’t, JP couldn’t and you lost, again.