They were — and are — the number one side in the relevant global rankings, but somehow the South Africans are just unable to shed the ‘chokers’ tag. The more they try, the more it gets slapped on them. The recent loss to India in a crunch game at the Champions Trophy was just another step forward in what is turning out to be a blind alley for them. It’s pretty much like the Indian bogey we, the Pakistanis, have been struggling to get off our backs.
Professional psychologists would be able to elaborate on this, but the existence of the phenomenon is unmistakable. How else can one rationalise something specific happening to a team over several years during which the side happens to have fresh faces many times over. The trauma of one defeat — or a set of defeats in quick succession — can affect the players having undergone the incident(s), but what about those who were never there ... those who in certain cases had not even started their careers at the time? This is institutional psyche at work.
Interestingly, things started going wrong for both the South Africans and the Pakistanis roughly around the same time; the mid-1990s. In fact, we can shrink it down further to the 1996 World Cup. Having discussed the Pakistan-India thing just the last time, let’s have a look at how the Proteas got themselves all tangled up despite being trendsetters in so many ways — agile fielding, quick running between the wickets, technology-based analytics being but a few.
The parallels between Pakistan and South Africa in international tournaments is quite interesting. While the former carries the Indian bogey, the latter crumbles under its own weight regardless of the opponent
Their return to the international arena post-apartheid had a wonderful feel about it. They were able to give the leading sides a serious run for their money. It was the game against England that ruined the party even though they were not at fault at all. It rained and the existing rules brought their target down to 22 runs off 13 balls, and then, to the eternal mockery of all rules, 21 off one delivery. The incident led to the birth of the Duckworth-Lewis system, but on that day one could see broken hearts littered across the field. So heart-breaking it was that when it was time for their next big game four years later, the South Africans were still busy nursing that very heart.
They had won all their five matches in the first round and were leading favourites for the title when they met the West Indies in the quarter-finals. It was the first do-or-die match and they could not perform under pressure after a middle order collapse.
However, nobody called them chokers because the South Africans were winning individual contests in between the tournaments and they were still considered ‘rookies’. It was the 1999 World Cup that sealed their fate big time. The Proteas had won the first four matches in the first stage and then lost to Zimbabwe, of all the teams, in a contest that meant nothing in terms of qualification to the next stage, which was called the Super Six. Getting down to the last match, the South Africans had already qualified for the semi-finals, while for Australia it was a do-or-die affair.
Chasing 271, Australia was three wickets down for 48 runs when Steven Waugh and Rickey Ponting set about doing the repairs. Just as they had added about a hundred more, Waugh conceded a simple dolly of a lob to mid-wicket. So simple it was that any Pakistani fielder would have grabbed it, but Herschelle Gibbs floored it out of sheer showmanship. It led to the fabled — though factually contested — retort from Waugh, “You just dropped the World Cup, mate!” Waugh was still there at the end when the Australians crossed the line with just two deliveries to go.
Incidentally, the very next match was again between the two sides and it happened to be the semi-final which made it a do-or-die contest for both. This time South Africa chased 213 and the match ended in a tie with two balls left. It was one of the biggest and the costliest brain-fade in the history of the game. They needed 25 off 18; 18 off 12; nine off six; and then one of four balls. Lance Klusener and Allan Donald were bundles of nerves as Waugh brought in every single fielder within five metres of the wicket to pre-empt a single. It is hard to decide if what happened over the next two deliveries was a tragic comedy or a comic tragedy.
From that day on, the South Africans have mastered the art of choking and the latest disaster against India when they lost eight wickets for 51 runs in just about 16 overs was but a continuation of this rather painful trend. Their mastery, arguably, is only matched by Pakistanis when they are facing the Indians. And the Champions Trophy provided ample evidence of that as well. The Pakistani team that took the field against South Africa and Sri Lanka showed different traits from the one that faced India. Demons in the mind happen to be strange creatures ... creatures of one’s own making.
Published in Dawn, EOS, June 18th, 2017
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