*Official* Quarter Final 3 - New Zealand v South Africa

[Lostman]

Watching the Kiwis in the field makes me wet BTW.

I had a whole list of puns to reply to Athlai, but NZ won and I got distracted

 

[Uppercut]

Was six-man tbf. Problem was two of them were only okay and their two most experienced batsmen did sweet **** all.

Smith adds almost no value to the side when he's in this kind of form. He never makes a significant contribution and even when he does score 30-40 runs he uses up a lot of deliveries to do it.

Amla, De Villiers, Kallis and Duminy are the ones who need to get the runs, and the first three could in some sense be said to be unlucky with their dismissals today. That's the risk you run when you rely so heavily on so few batsmen to get the runs.

 

[M0rphin3]

Awesome crowd support by Bangers too.

 

[blahblahblah]

i was supporting kiwis from thebeginning

 

[ankitj]

Go to cricinfo full commentary and ctrl-F for the "C" word. They haven't used it even once.

I feel as bad as Teja is feeling, here. Commiserations to SA fans

 

[Athlai]

I had a whole list of puns to reply to Athlai, but NZ won and I got distracted

When the match came to conclusion I was ready for anything.

 

[Jacknife]

When is a 6-run loss the same as a 49-run loss, ever?

Oh, right, when it's South Africa.

Well the fact they were cruising at 3-108, even at 4-121, you would back the team of SA caliber to chase down a fairly small total, which is very similar to the England game,only NZ had more runs to play with.They lost 6-51 here and against England they lost 6-41, very similar.

 

[blahblahblah]

Go to cricinfo full commentary and ctrl-F for the "C" word. They haven't used it even once.

I feel as bad as Teja is feeling, here. Commiserations to SA fans

 

[Jarquis]

South Africa bottle chasing 220 against a lesser fancied side, surely not?

Credit to NZ though.

 

[Jono]

Was six-man tbf. Problem was two of them were only okay and their two most experienced batsmen did sweet **** all.

I meant four actually good batsmen.

Smith and Du Plessis were hardly worth mentioning. Mediocre to poor.

 

[Teja.]

Oh please. Absolute rubbish.

Reason I said 'might' tbh. Don't know for sure as I haven't been here very long but personally do feel there wouldn't be so many ' -insert team ' right after the team lost if most other teams were in SA's place

 

[Lostman]

When the match came to conclusion I was ready for anything.

Did you see any grass on the wicket, before you started swinging your wood in the middle?

 

[blahblahblah]

kiwis vs India in finals ah!

 

[Athlai]

Some stiff proceedings definitately.

 

[vcs]

The brittleness of SA's middle and lower order is highly overrated TBH (basically off that England game). Duminy, Du Plessis, Botha, and Peterson have all shown they can adapt to the situation and get the job done.

Oh, and

 

[Howe_zat]

Jake, this time there can be no question that they just didn't have it mentally to grind it out after Kallis went. Just look at the Duminy, AB and Peterson dismissals. You have to put a big part of this down to mental fragility on the part of SA.

And obviously, taking nothing away from NZ who preyed ruthlessly on said mental fragility.

Plausibly, yes. That makes a lot of sense. What bothers me is that people will call this, their loss last week, their completely different loss in some semi-final 12 years ago the same thing because it's South Africa, and then not do so for any other country.

And then repeat it endlessly when it's just not that funny. A bit funny, maybe, but come on, we can do better than this.

South Africa don't have to do anything to get called chokers anymore. People brought it up in the India match - the frigging match where they briefly wobbled chasing 296 - because it was South Africa and no other reason. So that means that on a day like today - where, I might add, pressure played a sizeable part but by and large they were just hammered - it means I'm utterly sick of hearing it.

 

[Uppercut]

Some stiff proceedings definitately.

Harder tasks ahead now.

 

[Teja.]

World class bowling and fielding performance from NZ. Well done. Would have loved them to beat any team except India and SA.

 

[Jono]

Where's 0RI0N? UMAD?

Doubt we'll see him on CW again

 

[Uppercut]

Plausibly, yes. That makes a lot of sense. What bothers me is that people will call this, their loss last week, their completely different loss in some semi-final 12 years ago the same thing because it's South Africa, and then not do so for any other country.

And then repeat it endlessly when it's just not that funny. A bit funny, maybe, but come on, we can do better than this.

South Africa don't have to do anything to get called chokers anymore. People brought it up in the India match - the frigging match where they briefly wobbled chasing 296 - because it was South Africa and no other reason. So that means that on a day like today - where, I might add, pressure played a sizeable part but by and large they were just hammered - it means I'm utterly sick of hearing it.

All good points but less convincing in the immediate aftermath of a full-on massive choke.