**Official** Semis and Final Thread

[smash84]

Yeah, I don't think anyone is denying that this was a choke. But a lot of their other recent ones clearly weren't, like the 07 WC final.

South Africa, on the other hand, have had some truly dreadful ones in the past. Obviously the 99 and 2011 WC's stand out, but they were awesome in the 09 World T20 as well and blew it. And, I didn't see their loss to India in the 07 World T20, but I've heard they backed out of the chase and just tried to get the score they needed to go through, only to fall short.

That's proper bottling it.

This

 

[Dissector]

I don't think SL's previous three finals were chokes. They punched above their weight to reach the finals and then were beaten by better teams. This one was a choke though perhaps not as big as it looked at first sight. In hindsight 137 was more than a par score and batting was quite difficult. Ultimately SL was blindsided by a staggering innings by Samuels. His counter-attack against Malinga is the stuff of legend, right up there with Kallicharan against Lillee in 1975.

 

[Lostman]

Last years final kula dropped Gambir, and today he spills Samuals.

Kulasekera the goat imo.

 

[Spikey]

Well SA don't make the finals so... What is worse? Both pretty bad at it

The plan to deliberately lose wickets to Doherty so as to ensure Australia's ultimate failure was a rip roaring success though, so it wasn't all bad from their point of view.