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| Proteas ODI Captain AB de Villiers will be distraught after losing in the world cup semi final to New Zealand. |
Thus it is exasperating being a Proteas fan. Every time a world cup comes round, and even a T20 world cup, we all get excited that maybe this could be our time. Without fail, we are disappointed. Am I saying that the Proteas' chokers label is accurate? I do not know. All I can say is that, although New Zealand have a very skillful and hard working team this time round, we batted and bowled very well but our fielding in the last overs almost certainly cost us the match.
Du Plessis had called for a catch he could not reach, even when Hashim Amla was ready nearby. The ball landed between them. Then, Farhaan Behardien was poised for a catch when JP Duminy came out of nowhere and dived into him. It appeared that Behardien had already dropped the ball before Duminy arrived, but when a player is approaching like that it can distract you as a fielder.
It was New Zealand who also ended our world cup dreams in 2011. For them, this is an opportunity to be rugby and cricket world champions at the same time. What a dream come true. With regards to the Proteas, foolish fans such as myself will have to wait another four years. We will wait, as time builds up our hope again.
We certainly did not choke this time - we lost a tight match and as many errors as we made, New Zealand made even more when we were batting giving both our openers a let off they didn't really benefit from and missing run outs, dropping catches and more. At the end a number of what ifs and buts persist but if we had won just know that all New Zealands moments like that would be under scrutiny and yet now no-one is mentioning them...
ReplyDeleteTime to leave the BUTs and IFs behind and just celebrate the better team on the day while still believing that we are the better team overall and while we have to wait a long four years for the next world cup we can hopefully get into a run of form that establishes us as one of the great all time teams until that team...
https://brettfish.wordpress.com/2015/03/24/stick-your-ifs-in-your-buts
love brett fish
Nicholas Zaal, you said it yourself - it's the cricket FAN (fanatic) that talks of "chokers", "here we go again", "without fail we are disappointed". The true cricket SUPPORTER, such as Brett Fish, does not blame his team. He sees a thrilling match in which both sides made mistakes. He lives every ball, every moment. Do you know how many semi-finals New Zealand had lost before this one, Nicholas? Six. (We had lost two, this was our third, the Kiwi's seventh). This time it was their time to win. Let us respect and salute that. And applaud our Team. Looking forward to the next match, the next series, the next fight.
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