The one that got away

So the ICC Champions Trophy, which up until now has been a damp squib in more ways than one, has finally been ignited by marvellous victories by the West Indies and Pakistan.

As I pen this column, the South African team will be methodically and dejectedly going about the task of packing their extensive array of kit and preparing to get on the earliest ‘silver budgie’ home. Mission not accomplished.

The change room will be like a morgue. It will be an atmosphere that is being experienced too often for many. All will be hurting bad. All will realize this was a game that should have been won. Post mortems will be done in relative silence and areas of concern will be privately discussed. Astoundingly, many will be a reoccurring theme and that is a reason for even more anxiety.

In my mind they lost the game in three areas.

1. The lack of progression in the middle overs when batting was difficult to fathom. Having got off to the perfect start with Smith and Gibbs playing well on a slow deck and batting together for over 20 overs, automatically provided an option to reassess the target score. At this early stage a figure of 270-280 was achievable. South Africa brought up their hundred without the loss of a wicket in the 21st over.

Admittedly Smith departed two balls later but between overs 21 and 38 they only added 56 runs! Acceleration was not important but maintaining momentum was. In those crucial 17 overs that followed, the run rate was only 3.29 runs to the over after getting off at nearly five an over for the first twenty.

I know Graeme Smith well enough to know that for him to admit after the innings that they were some 10 runs fewer than they should have been, that he was thinking as I was. Take his 10 and add another 15 runs!

2. The continued confusing use (or non use) of Klusener with the bat is mind-boggling. When Gibbs went, after a superb welcome return to form, there were six and a half overs remaining. It was the perfect time for Klusener to attempt to play catch-up and dominate the latter overs, but instead in walked Martin van Jaarsveld. I was perplexed. In the end Lance had no time to alter the course of the target.

3. Again the excess of unforced errors cost them dearly. Missed run out opportunities were there for all to see but don’t weigh too heavily on them because that is the nature of the one-day game. The real concern that has been lurking for some time was the Extras count.

The West Indies, who are known for their ill discipline, only conceded 6 Extras of which 4 were leg byes. South Africa’s count was an astonishing 23 Extras. That total was made up of 10 leg byes (which don’t deserve too much close analysis), 8 wides and 5 no balls. Simply far off the pace that is needed at this level. This epidemic, which has been prominent for months now, is not the way South Africa play their cricket.

This game was always going to be tight, as history has proved between these two teams.

Attention to detail should have seen South Africa home.

History will now prove this is one that should not have got away.