Earth to SA: less thinking, more doing

Times Media

TELFORD VICE, Wellington

SA are thinking themselves out of the World Cup. To hear JP Duminy talk about the team having “not shown any fight”, admitting that “the pressure just got to us”, saying that “nobody took responsibility bar AB (de Villiers)” and that “these sort of defeats can break you mentally” is to hear a beaten member of a beaten team talk about being beaten.

That team was SA against Pakistan in Auckland on Saturday, when they lost their way chasing 232 in 47 overs and were instead frogmarched out of the place for 202.

SA can thank points fodder like Zimbabwe, West Indies and Ireland that they are in the quarter-finals: when they have come up against proper teams - India and Pakistan - they have come unstuck. In both of those games, they chased a target and fallen short.

And so what. SA are in the quarter-finals regardless of Saturday’s miserable performance. After all that, they need only three wins to rule them all, as they might say here in Middle earth.

But, if you didn’t know better, you would think Duminy was trying to explain why SA had bombed out of the tournament - not why they remain in the running despite their losses.

“In a few words: we haven’t been good enough,” he said. “Every time we have found ourselves batting second, we’ve not stuck to it. Guys haven’t been scoring hundreds. The partnerships haven’t been there.”

Closer to the truth is the fact that SA have - as they almost always have in tournaments - crumbled under pressure.

“It doesn’t matter who you are, the added pressure is always going to be there,” Duminy said. “We need to accept the fact that we haven’t been good enough.”

Duminy made it sound as if all Angelo Matthews had to do to ensure his team’s success if SA, as expected, face Sri Lanka in the quarter-finals in Sydney next Wednesday was to win the toss and bat: “What are we going to produce there if we find ourselves batting second in a quarter-final or a semi-final?

“We were just below par (against Pakistan). Bar AB (who scored 77), we didn’t shown any fight. The pressure just got to us.”

Were the team as angry as De Villiers obviously was after the Pakistan match?

“Anger is probably not the right word from the team perspective; hurt is more the right word,” Duminy said. “(AB) tried to lead from the front - we just never followed.

“You find yourself in that pressure moment and the last thing you think about is the team gameplan. It gets too big for you.”

Oh, dear. That would seem to mean De Villiers and the men he leads are not on the same page. It also says SA are crushed after losing two games out of five. In that case, why should they put their compatriots through the agony of a knockout match? Why not come on the next flight?

Because, that’s why. Because Duminy is a fine player in a fine team. Because that will not change even though he has said all of the above. Because he does not want to believe that neither he nor the team who are an important part of who he is have been beaten in the most brutal and lasting sense of the word.

“International cricket is about performing on the big stage,” Duminy said. “That’s what makes you good and great. It’s something we need to get right as a unit, not as individuals.

“We need to make sure we stick together as a team because these sort of defeats can break you mentally.”

That they can. And if you let that happen you will never be forgiven.