Photo: Twitter/All about cricket
The Proteas cricket team have disappointed once again at a World Cup tournament with a devastating loss to the Netherlands at the T20 World Cup in Australia on Sunday.
Having performed well from the start, and even beating India with ease, the Proteas lost the last two matches on the trot against Pakistan and the Netherlands to get eliminated from the tournament.
After doing so well and virtually having one foot in the semi-finals, the Proteas could not blame anything outside of their own control – there was no rain, no freakish misfortune – for losing to the Netherlands and failing to make the semi-finals.
Chasing 159 to win, the Proteas stumbled to 145/8 in Sunday’s Adelaide Oval encounter.
The stunning loss means South Africa will miss the semi-finals.
ALSO READ: Netherlands shock Proteas, knock SA out of T20 World Cup
The Proteas have become known as perennial and serial chokers in major tournaments having lost all of their knockout matches in International Cricket Council (ICC) tournaments.
It all started when they could not win the semi-final against Australia in the 1999 World Cup.
Australia were bundled out for 213 runs, but the South African side could manage just a tie, and based on their performance in the Super-6 stage, South Africa got eliminated.
The “chokers” hashtag was trending on Twitter on Sunday as heartbroken South Africans took to social media to express their disappointment at the loss.
Karishma Sing was one of those.
“South Africa beats the best team in business on any given day but then goes back to being chokers. How do you lose to [the] Netherlands after having some of the best T20 players?”
Former Proteas cricket star AB de Villiers tweeted: “Ouch! Feel sorry for our boys. Well played Holland.”
During the 2011 Cricket World Cup, De Villiers said the Protea’s losses had nothing to do with “choking.”
“ICC [International Cricket Council] events are difficult things, you have to peak at the right time. It has nothing to do with choking or throwing a game away. It’s pressure and other teams may have played better that time.”
Despite the loss and the chokers’ title, South Africans want the Proteas to do well.
South Africa has always been considered a strong force in world cricket, but it has often been seen to fall apart on big occasions like the Cricket World Cups.
Bafana Bafana won the African Cup of Nation, and the Springboks won the Rugby World Cup three times, in 1995, 2007 and 2019.
So, the question remains, when are the Proteas going to lift that elusive Word Cup trophy which has been dodging them for so long and get rid of the “chokers” title once and for all?
Time will tell…
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