Aussies feeling the pressure

Times Media

TELFORD VICE, Auckland

SUDDENLY, it’s the Australians who can’t stop talking about pressure as push comes to shove at the World Cup.

And that after SA exorcised 23 years of being haunted by their failures in the tournament by thrashing Sri Lanka by nine wickets in their quarter-final in Sydney on Wednesday.

It was a consummately confident performance by a team who did not look much like the side who stumbled under pressure during the group stage.

The win, SA’s first in the six sudden-death games they have played at the World Cup since 1992, will give them plenty of confidence heading into their semi-final in Auckland on Tuesday - when they will play the winners of Saturday’s showdown between New Zealand and West Indies.

On Friday, an Australian team whose pre-tournament status as outright favourites was dented when they lost their nerve and with it their match against New Zealand will play their quarter-final against Pakistan in Adelaide.

Pakistan administered SA’s timely wake-up call by beating AB de Villiers’ men by 29 runs in Auckland 13 days ago. But the Aussies won’t have the insurance of a second chance when they face cricket’s most dangerous team on Friday - it’s win or go home. Or, in the Aussies’ case, win or stay home alone while other teams contest the Cup.

Last week, Rilee Rossouw said “pressure” nine times in 82 seconds in an interview that SA team officials later tried to suppress. On Thursday, the p-word peppered Michael Clarke’s column in the Sydney Daily Telegraph.

“It takes skill not emotion to win these big matches,” Australia’s captain wrote. “That is how the Australian teams I have been involved in have had success.

“If you let the pressure and expectations get on top of you, that can be the hardest part of this game. You need to leave all that off the field and remember you’re just playing with skill, which is why preparation is so important.

“The pressures that everyone talks about are there, but pressure is on you every day as an Australian cricketer.

Even the ice man of cricket, Steve Waugh, has melted enough to offer his views on how to survive and prosper when the moments loom larger.

“Sometimes you get caught up in these big tournaments and put too much pressure on yourself,” Waugh said. “At the end of the day it’s about why did you first start playing cricket?

“Because you love the game and nothing’s changed. Don’t forget that when you get out there for the big games.”

That the Aussies wheeled Waugh out at a training session, presumably to tell their team how not to drop the World Cup also has a SA echo.

The Saffers, after all, have lined up everyone from Gary Kirsten to Charl Langeveldt to Mike Hussey to Mike Horn to help them perform under pressure.

In fact, if South Africans didn’t know any better they might think the Aussies were wary of choking. But, before they say so out loud, best they wait for their team to win four World Cups.