SA need to get heads out of clouds

Times Media

TELFORD VICE, Wellington

GOOD thing SA qualified for the World Cup quarter-finals before their match against the United Arab Emirates in Wellington on Thursday, because their heads are not where they should be.

Instead, they are somewhere between their disastrous performance against Pakistan in Auckland on Saturday and the start of the knockout stage, which for SA will probably be a match against Sri Lanka in Sydney on Wednesday.

After Saturday’s game, when SA were bowled out for 202 chasing 232 in 47 overs, AB de Villiers made the thoughtful admission that, “Maybe we are not as good as we think we are.”

That suggested a healthy willingness to take a long, sober look at why SA had lost their way in search of a moderate target - a fate that has befallen them often enough for even Graeme Smith to notice.

“SA’s win-loss record when chasing a target of 240 or more since the 2011 World Cup is 3-10 while they only have a 39% win percentage when chasing in one-day internationals since January, 2013,” Smith wrote in a column on the International Cricket Council website. “On the contrary, when batting first, SA have a 24-8 win-loss record, which is the best among all test-playing nations during the same period.”

But, by Wednesday, SA’s introspection seemed to have gone the way of the giant moa - a flightless bird 3.6 metres tall and 240 kilogrammes heavy that was hunted to extinction by the Maoris in the 1500s.

“I still feel very confident,” De Villiers said. “I 100% believe we’re the best team in the tournament. Those two losses (to India and Pakistan, the only other test-playing teams in pool B besides veritable minnows Zimbabwe) in the group stages did hurt us a bit and did hurt me a bit, but we’re past that now.

“We’ve taken our learning and we know we could have won those games. We weren’t that far off. I’m all about confidence going into this tournament, all positive chat from now on in.

“We know we’re very close to ... well, a few games away from taking that World Cup home.”

As for hunting targets, De Villiers said: “I believe we can chase down any total. We didn’t get it right in the chases that we didn’t play well in. As long as we get those right, then I truly believe we can chase down anything. It’s not a problem. We’ve done it in the last year a few times under pressure.”

Discounting Thursday’s game, SA have played 29 ODIs in the past year and won 19. Thirteen of those victories have been achieved in the 17 games in which they batted first. They have batted second 12 times, and won six of those matches.

So, they have been successful half of the time when they have batted first, and more than three-quarters of the time when they have batted second.

SA were indeed under pressure when they chased 328 to beat Australia in Harare in August. But none of their other successful pursuits have involved targets of more than 240 and three were less then 180.

Maybe SA are only good as De Villiers thought they were on Saturday. Maybe the moa thought it could fly.