South Africa and ICC tournaments. That is one hell of a love story creating box office records since forever. Their familiar woes at ICC events continued in the Champions Trophy in England as they lost to India in a must-win group game encounter at The Oval. That they reached such a situation is largely due to their embarrassing loss to Pakistan in the previous game, a performance that did little to justify de Villiers' words at the end of the campaign.
"We've covered all the bases. There's no doubt about that," he said. "We've had camp after camp. And we've worked really, really hard on the nets, and we back each other, we trust each other, and for some reason, things like that just keep happening", the skipper said after they were ousted from the tournament.
For some reason, South Africa are just not able to overcome their fears in crucial games and this has stood between them and winning big games. They had the right personnel, in form players, a genius player, some incredibly talented bowlers and a veteran spinner. Yet when it most mattered very few put their hands up and did the job and even fewer seemed ready to fight it out. That their tournament was a horrible disaster is inked down but what really went wrong for the no.1 ODI side? Here is a take.
#5 Kagiso Rabada off radar
If South Africa had one area of zero concerns going into big tournaments, it was their pace bowling department. That wasn't the case this time around although concerns were smoothened by a Rabada-Parnell show at the Lord's against England just prior to the Trophy. However, the tall and lanky seamer was completely off the radar when the real deal began.
South Africa had high hopes from their new leader of the pack but Rabada let them down with highly inconsistent lengths and inability to intimidate batsmen. The young fast bowler was wayward with little zip in his run-up or deliveries. That the likes of Niroshan Dickwella and Fakhar Zaman took him apart reveals a lot about Rabada's ineffectiveness.
#4 The all-rounder conundrum
South Africa were believed to have impeccable balance in their line-up with as many as four fast bowling all-rounders in the squad apart from JP Duminy's diminishing all-round skills. That they would not be able to play even three of them together was evident but the two that did get the nod were thought to make an impact.
Wayne Parnell had been amongst the wickets in the build-up to the Champions Trophy. The highly volatile seaming all-rounder was finding his lost rhythm and late swing. Chris Morris, on the other hand, had enhanced his reputation as a clever slogger and death bowler in the IPL season and was expected to be a key component in their pace attack. Sadly, both the all-rounders looked completely out of sorts and neither did anything of note except being in the highlights package for conceding quite a few boundaries.
#3 A subdued opening pair
If there was anything guaranteed in South Africa's ODI batting, it was some sublime back foot punches from Hashim Amla and powerful pull shots from the diminutive Quinton de Kock at the start of an innings. However, de Kock batted like he had been told to preserve his wicket while Amla's shots never found the gap between fielders.
They were slow, lethargic and eventually built pressure on themselves in all three games of the group stages. While the middle-order was good enough to overcome that against a poor Sri Lankan attack, the same wasn't true in their other two games played on used pitches. The lack of intent at the top of the order hurried up the middle-order and eventually paved way for their exit.
#2 The ineffectiveness of AB de Villiers as skipper and batsman
It is very rare for someone like AB de Villiers to display raw aggression with little intent. However, that was exactly what Mr.Superman displayed in the tournament with his wild pull and slash in the first two games and yet another 'no one can beat me' run-out in the clash against India.
The hunger and passion filled de Villiers of the 2015 World Cup was nowhere to be seen as he made little impact with the bat. His captaincy was even worse as he struggled to get the most out of a roaring Morne Morkel. Morris was wasted and Phehlukwayo wasn't even tried until the last game despite Parnell being among the most inconsistent of packages.
#1 Inability to build steady partnerships
It would be rather wrong to assume that South Africa did not build good partnerships at all but very few were effective. In all three games of the tournament, the Proteas had at least one pair that looked set to go big. But save for the Faf du Plessis-Hashim Amla partnership in the Sri Lankan game, none of the others went ahead.
De Villiers was keen on gifting his wickets away while Du Plessis managed to under edge onto his stumps twice. Miller was pretty good at 5 but his partners let him down twice, with him running out of batsmen at the other end against Pakistan and then Du Plessis running him out against India. Duminy and Morris – well, they are better left undiscussed.
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