Opinion: A Proteas effort to praise

The uninformed will call it a choke. That assertion is lazy and wrong. Those who hold this view should be ignored, and treated with the disdain a view so flawed warrants.

India were better in the key metrics in a belter of a T20 World Cup final. In a match that ebbed and flowed, ultimately they were superior in definitive ways.

Also read: Proteas fall painfully short of glory

This Proteas team pushed them to the very end despite India’s team being populated by world-class operators everywhere you looked.

Written off by many prior to the final, the Proteas exhibited the type of performance that wasn’t enough yesterday but signals a shift in the T20 landscape.

They are elite. To go through this tournament unbeaten, but for the stumble in Barbados, despite not being part of cricket’s golden children – India, Australia and England – takes some doing.

Deep sadness and pride can co-exist. These are the right emotions for Proteas fans to feel. Anger has no place – accusations of choking even less so.

Talent alone often means very little in finals. Two far more significant qualities steer the course of these contests.

Temperament. It’s what wins knockout matches. Talent is nothing without it, and Virat Kohli is an embodiment of both these qualities.

If he’d been just another India player, he wouldn’t have seen the Super Eight round, such was his wretched form. But he is not another. He is other.

South Africa had no rebuttal to his refusal to fail. He is inevitable.

The Proteas bowlers will reflect on their strategy to him and lament it. But the margins are so fine at this level, in these matches, that the elite players need a mere glimpse of a vulnerability to hurt you.

The Proteas should be disappointed about how they bowled to him, but not broken by it. Kohli possesses a genius that transcends the best-laid plans.

As is Jasprit Bumrah. As you read this, they are making space at the Louvre for the ball he dismissed Reeza Hendricks with. Art.

He then bowled the 17th over and conceded just two runs. That left South Africa needing 20 to win the world cup. It was too big of an ask.

It would be remiss not to note Heinrich Klassen’s temperament under fire. In the absence of Kohli, his innings of 52 off 27 would be enough for the Proteas to have broken their world cup curse. Klaasen’s heroics could not match Kohli’s. That is cricket.

Moments. They define these matches. After a tournament marked by mediocrity, Suryakumar Yadav had a moment. With South Africa needing 16 off the last over, his catch to dismiss David Miller was impossibly brilliant. Running around the boundary at long-off, he somehow grabbed a slight mis-hit from Miller when it appeared to have already crossed the boundary. His momentum took him across the rope, but he gently floated it up, retrieving it as he re-entered the field. Moments.

India’s excellence earned them their first T20 World Cup crown since 2007. That excellence denied South Africa their first ever. But this team, led by Aiden Markram, whose leadership is a beautiful hybrid of the best of Hansie Cronje and Graeme Smith, is worth believing in.

I’m not sure how long the likes of Keshav Maharaj (34), Heinrich Klaasen (32), Reeza Hendricks (34), Quinton de Kock (31), David Miller (32) and Tabraiz Shamsi (34) will play for. There may be a significant rebuild between now and the next world cup. That is, however, a conversation that needs to be had once the disappointment dissipates.

Now they must mourn. We must mourn, what could have been.

But in your sadness, leave room for the perspective that these Proteas made us proud.

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