*Official* Group A General Discussion

[salman85]

As a rule of thumb,South Africa will choke in the Semifinals.Not the QFs.

 

[BeeGee]

As a rule of thumb,South Africa will choke in the Semifinals.Not the QFs.

They couldn't even make it out of the group stage in 2003. All thanks to their greatest choke of all, against SL, getting knocked out of their home WC because they didn't know how to read a D/L table properly Classic stuff.

 

[Blaze 18]

As a rule of thumb,South Africa will choke in the Semifinals.Not the QFs.

 

[cricpk]

NZ vs SA quarterfinal would be the funniest match ever. At least in the really badly fixed Pakistan games at least one team is trying to win.

Even If South Africa choke or take bribe to lose, Newzealand will still lose the quarterfinal match against South Africa

 

[irottev]

Yea, South Africa are pretty good. Easily tournament favourites as they have strengths in every department of the game whereas India has weaknesses in the fielding side of the game including pace bowling.

 

[morgieb]

If South Africa were any other team other than South Africa, they'd win the world cup easily.

 

[Smudge]

Even If South Africa choke or take bribe to lose, Newzealand will still lose the quarterfinal match against South Africa

Classic stuff.

 

[Spark]

NZ vs SA quarterfinal would be the funniest match ever. At least in the really badly fixed Pakistan games at least one team is trying to win.

Haha classic.

 

[Hurricane]

Even If South Africa choke or take bribe to lose, Newzealand will still lose the quarterfinal match against South Africa

No doubt this post is correct - despite the poor grammar.

 

[Athlai]

And contradictory message.

 

[Howe_zat]

If South Africa were any other team other than South Africa, they'd win the world cup easily.

Surprising how many people take this attitude seriously. It's not as though India or Sri Lanka have been winning a load of world cups lately.

 

[BeeGee]

Surprising how many people take this attitude seriously. It's not as though India or Sri Lanka have been winning a load of world cups lately.

Best result in a WC:
India - Champions (1983)
Sri Lanka - Champions (1996)
South Africa - Semifinalists (1992, 1999, 2007)

Considering how good a team SA has, the fact that they have never even made the final of a WC is pretty woeful.

 

[vcs]

The makeup of a team (including its leadership) changes so much over four years that I'm not sure how SA can be branded "chokers" in general. Lazy generalization.

 

[morgieb]

Surprising how many people take this attitude seriously. It's not as though India or Sri Lanka have been winning a load of world cups lately.

They still have won at least 1. Losing 99 was inexcusable, and 2003 was just plain dumb.

 

[Spark]

But as someone made the comparison before - we just seemed to keep on winning whoever we brought in despite complete changes of personnel. However I think I'm in your camp - that's not so much down to unusual mental strength or anything like that and more due to the fact that for fifteen years we managed to tapped into three consecutive generations of staggeringly talented cricketers.

 

[Jacknife]

But as someone made the comparison before - we just seemed to keep on winning whoever we brought in despite complete changes of personnel. However I think I'm in your camp - that's not so much down to unusual mental strength or anything like that and more due to the fact that for fifteen years we managed to tapped into three consecutive generations of staggeringly talented cricketers.

Very talented cricketers ,yes, but I do think they had a group of players with unreal mental strength and nerve, whatever position they got into they always thought they could win, which obviously came from success , but still.

 

[Spark]

Yeah but it's not the major factor IMO. Why was Warne able to turn Adelaide on its head? Yes there was incredible mental strength but it's worth noting most of the team - including Ponting and McGrath IIRC had given up winning. The main factor in Shane Warne being able to do what he did was more to do with the simple fact that he was the finest legspinner the world had seen for many many decades.

The point was made before when we were having our incredible losing-from-winning-positions streak (esp. post-Mohali and MCG) that it's not as if McWarne didn't relax and tone down when the opp were 8 down and a fair way behind. They were just good enough for it to not matter.

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In a way I love that our group is so boring compared to B, I would hate for us to be in such a mammoth cluster**** that is that group - not to mention shattered nerves.

 

[Howe_zat]

Very talented cricketers ,yes, but I do think they had a group of players with unreal mental strength and nerve, whatever position they got into they always thought they could win, which obviously came from success , but still.

Well there is that, but I think it's worth noting that the very best of these were there all or most of the way through - Ponting, McGrath and Gilchrist most notably - and the several outstanding players that mostly stayed the same formed the bedrock of the side. This allowed players who were the very good rather than the staggeringly talented - the Brad Hoggs and Andy Bichels - find a successful place in the side.

 

[Spark]

You look at our fringe players as well - the Loves, Lehmanns and even Hodge.

 

[vcs]

A bit of both (mental strength and skill) TBH. Guys like Waugh, Bevan and Symonds were amazing at turning around near impossible situations (thinking mainly of WC games) and you need a lot of self-belief and toughness to do that. There's a pretty close correlation between the technical and mental sides of the game.