Listen to Story It’s tough being a South African for now! Destiny has been harsh on them. It’s making them strain every sinew and go through unreal heartbreaks. On Saturday, they saw more than a ray of hope and were ever-close to the finish line in the T20 World Cup final against India.
The dreams were about to turn real, the dreaded tag of ‘chokers’ was about to go off their shoulders. The stage was set for them to rejoice, but then, destiny had other plans for them in Barbados. Heinrich Klaasen went berserk and took down Axar Patel with some lusty blows, bringing the required run-rate to below 6 in the last 5 overs.
But the past came back to haunt them. In 1999, Allan Donald and Lance Klusener made a meal of a single run against Australia at Edgbaston. In 2015 at the Eden Park in Auckland, Dale Steyn, one of their greatest bowlers, could not finish it off against New Zealand .
Come 2024, they believed, believed hard that this could be the end to their misery; this could be the day when they do actual justice to their potential. But then, cricket can be a cruel game and can drag you down to ground reality. When David Miller could not clear the boundary off Hardik Pandya, hearts would have stopped; heads would have gone down; the faces on the ground narrated a story.
Although 5 balls remained in the run-chase, it was all over bar the shouting for the Proteas . IND vs SA, T20 World Cup Highlights | Scorecard It started turning after Klaasen got a feather down to Rishab.