England / South Africa

England are better than South Africa

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You know what? We knew this. We intimated as much this morning. This South African team hasn’t choked, it just isn’t really all that good. This particular XI had a couple of good batsmen and no bowlers. You don’t win much with a line-up like that.

You may point out that 80-8 is particularly bad. It is, but it’s not a choke. A choke is throwing away a winning position. This was a mediocre team failing to hit its own reasonably low standards and sort of rolling slowly downhill towards defeat as a consequence.

Look at it this way: this was a batting line-up which had Robin Peterson at three, even though he only has one fifty in 72 one-day internationals. Peterson came up against James Anderson on a day when the ball swung. With that in mind, his 30 was the overperformance of the day.

Several England players performed well, but whoever they face in the final will present a far bigger challenge. As will the rain.

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13 comments

  1. No, they choked a little bit. The start being bad can be put down to the conditions, but the middle order definitely choked.

  2. This wasn’t a choke. Just an ass-whipping of a side missing half its first choice XI.

    1. But I’d have to add I agree with KC here. The use of choking here seems inappropriate. It is simply a case of one team being much superior to the other.

    2. Gary Kirsten, and everyone else, has to admit they choked, as the definition of choking has been repeatedly changed to describe whatever South Africa happen to have done.

      With that definition in mind it is clear that South Africa choked.

  5. yes, those who insist on using the dreaded c-word here presumably think that the saffers couldn’t cope with the pressure of being in a semi (again) and therefore gave a far worse account of themselves than they would otherwise have done; and i can see how that could be taken as choking, but basically they were not a very strong team and got stuffed on the day.

    i was at work and had to leave my workstation before england’s innings started – by the time i got back there, it was all over. i could scarcely believe it was that easy… but it certainly won’t be in the final.

  6. There was a very 90s feel about that South African side. Plenty of decent cricketers that can bat, bowl and field, but when you look at it written down then its hard to see where the 70’s (Amla and ABdV aside) and 3 wickets hauls are coming from.

    Hard to understand why they thought that Duminy and Petersen lobbing up some pies with the new ball was the way forward as well.

    1. That’s genuinely funny. We don’t know whether it’s changed how we feel about the Lions, but we like the England cricket team slightly more.

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