© AFP
With World Cup approaching, South Africa can take key lessons from their one-wicket loss to the West Indies in the fourth One-Day International (ODI) at St George's Park on Sunday. The nail-biting encounter proved to be a bittersweet learning curve made up of moments of brilliance and misjudgment.
Proteas captain, AB de Villiers, praised the execution and skills from his attack missing Dale Steyn, Vernon Philander and Imran Tahir, but rued the 22 extras leaked by the bowlers. "There were too many extras today which hurt me quite a bit," De Villiers said after the match. South Africa are famous for losing close matches and have earned the tag of 'chokers' for erring at crucial moments.
South Africa's 'habit' of losing big games are well known since the memorable semi-final of the 1999 World Cup that ended in a tie against Australia in Brimingham, allowing Australia to sneak into the final.
In 2003, South Africa famously misread the Duckworth-Lewis equation in a rain-affected game and failed to make the knockout stages. Graeme Smith's team was beaten handily by Australia in the semi-finals in 2007 and in Dhaka, the Proteas messed up a modest chase against New Zealand in the quarter-final in Dhaka in 2011. (Andre Russell Hails Team Effort)
"It was unfortunate that we leaked the extras; the no-balls and wides. If you are going to play close games of cricket it comes down to the little things like that. The one dropped catch by me, a couple of fumbles in the field. All in all it was a great fight by us and I'm proud of the way we stuck to our plans and fought back."
De Villiers says his teams always expected the visitors to bounce back, and prepared accordingly despite holding an unassailable 3-0 lead in the five-match series.
"It's certainly not a wake-up call," De Villiers stressed. "We were wide awake and there is no doubt about the fact that we weren't complacent. We were on the money the whole time, we were fighting. After every wicket we spoke about being humble and working hard.
"It came down to a bit of pressure towards the end and we lost. It's a painful affair but we move on and we will try and finish on a high at Centurion."
David Miller's maiden ODI century was a timely boost for the middle order, and will give the line-up some confidence after a few matches without substantial time at the crease.
"It was a massive boost," Miller said. "I have been feeling confident over the last few months but it was really nice to finally get the hundred. I believed over the last six, seven months that I can score a hundred so it was a great feeling to score the first one."
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