The contest between the Kiwis and Proteas in the first semi finals of the World cup saw fortunes see-sawing from one team to the other. When everything seemed going South Africa’s way with runs flowing off Du Plessis’ and De Villiers bat, the weather gods that had given the Proteas horror World Cups previously had once again returned. They threatened to derail their momentum with the bat, but this team was determined to put history out of their minds. When play resumed, Miller smoked the ball and sent New Zealanders on a leather hunt.
They did not choke. They seemed to have put the rains and history behind them. A Brendon McCullum show threatened to make a mockery of a huge target. Clearly AB de Villiers is not in the same league as Mahendra Singh Dhoni or McCullum when it comes to thinking out of the box. When he could have used Tahir’s leg spin and slowed down things, he persisted with pace, which allowed Baz to take full toll. When Tahir came to roll his arm over, the damage had been done. De Villiers for once was already defeated in terms of strategy. What should have been a spontaneous decision to bring on Tahir turned out to be a forced one. An inspired Morkel spell still kept them in the hunt, hiding his captain’s costly mistake. I repeat, the damage had already been done. Elliott and Corey Anderson played out of their skins to push South Africans to near extinction. Did they choke now? No, they kept coming back, kept picking wickets. A run out opportunity went begging, when De Villiers failed to collect the ball while knocking down the stumps. It was the sheer excitement of a wicket that had De Villiers on the wrong side. Emotions, plenty of them! At this level, you need to master your emotions and not let them take over. That just did not happen, the pre-match emotions certainly played a role, one should agree. How often do you see the best fielder in the world letting a simple chance go? It all boils down to keeping your emotions in check. It again put a question mark against his name when it comes to donning the lead role. One final nail in the coffin, was when a straight forward chance to Beharadein was spilt. It was as simple a catch as one would pray for at the international level. A supercharged Duminy flew across Beharadein, blinding him. Again, De Villiers’ attempt to supercharge his mates backfired. When Elliott hit that six to seal the match, the writing was already on the wall, if only you had sensed it. They did not choke, the South Africans! They were emotionally supercharged by the words of their skipper. Though cricket is a team game, it is so easy that a skipper’s emotions rub off on his mates. De Villiers is such a champion cricketer, such a respected person, but, one thing is for certain. He is not a natural leader like a Dhoni or a Clarke. South Africa, lost it even before the match began and for once they did not choke. They lost to a better skipper, in Brendon McCullum. The Proteas though can keep their heads high with that heart winning display! One can even argue that had it not been for De Villiers’ inspirational speech before the match, the Proteas would not have even had a sniff. But there has to be a balance between the two extremes and the skipper might have over did it. !
That's Y sports 