The enthusiasm of the Indian fans to get tickets for the much anticipated match vs. South Africa is heart warming , unfortunately their country just or stadiums just cant handle the demand. My focus today though is solely Eng vs. Sa Sun 6/3/2011.
Choking is the mechanical obstruction of the flow of air from the environment into the lungs. In cricket it’s mostly associated with the South African (Proteas). Having bundled England out on a deteriorating bowler friendly pitch for only 171, you would excuse me for believing a comfortable win would be inevitable since the Proteas bat well into their tail. That looked all the more likely with a bright opening partnership between Amla (42)and Smith(22) of 63 and even after they both lost their and Kallis(15) wickets South Africa was still well placed at 124/3 after 32 overs. That’s requiring 48 from 108 balls (18 overs), and on that bowler friendly pitch they lost their last 7 wickets for 42 runs. What baffles me is the shot selection of their frontline batsman, can you explain to me how I repeat on a bowler friendly pitch both Kallis and Duminy playing expansive shots outside or just on off stump as if they required 10 runs an over. Surely just that little bit of pressure went like a rush of blood to the head and three runs an over can be scored with ones and twos easily. Yes it was difficult to bat on that surface and yes the spinners gave a good account of themselves not to mention Jimmy Anderson & Stuart Broads figures of 2/16 from 6 overs and 4/15 from 6.4 respectively but had South Africa shown more composure then they shouldn’t have given England a sniff and England could have been joining KP on the early flight home.
The Proteas batsmen weren’t solely to blame either I recall England being 15/3 in the fifth over and then Bopara and Trot scored 99 @3.93 in 25 overs, why didn’t Smith take a positive stance and continue with Peterson or even bowl him through rather than release the pressure and replace him.
Hey on the bright side on this occasion they choked in the group stages not in the semi- final and the Proteas are still in this World Cup 2011.
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