Here’s the truth: Proteas choked against New Zealand, and must embrace change to avoid more tears in 2027

COMMENT by Ashfak Mohamed

It would’ve been funny if it wasn’t so tragic.

About 20 hours after the Proteas were knocked out of yet another ICC tournament in the knockout stage, Cricket South Africa, in their infinite wisdom, sent out on email to reflect on the defeat to New Zealand in Lahore.

“CSA CONGRATULATES PROTEAS MEN’S TEAM ON ANOTHER ICC KNOCK-OUT APPEARANCE” roared the heading, almost as if just reaching the Champions Trophy semi-finals was something to celebrate.

Cricket SA went on to call the 50-run loss to the Black Caps a “commendable performance”, with CEO Pholetsi Moseki saying “well done”, adding: “Qualifying for the semi-finals in such a demanding tournament is a testament to the hard work put in both on and off the field.

“This past achievement marks a third consecutive semi-final appearance for the men’s team at ICC events, to go with their T20 World Cup final appearance in 2024.”

But in the cold light of day, it was just another typical choke from the South Africans when it mattered most.

Just like last year’s T20 World Cup final was a choke – and that was even worse, as the Proteas were actually in a winning position against India in Barbados, until Rishabh Pant’s infamous ‘injury break’, not to mention Suryakumar Yadav’s dodgy catch on the boundary rope to dismiss David Miller.

For my sins, I had written in my column that was published on the morning of Wednesday’s semi-final that “I’m not jinxing it: This is finally the Proteas’ year”.

And I genuinely believed so, following their impressive win over Afghanistan and their dismantling of England in the group stage.

But once the Kiwis won the toss and chose to bat first, my tweet about it proved to be cryptic in the end: “I think it was a good toss for the #Proteas to lose, and I don’t mind them bowling first and chasing  At least they’ll know what the target will be  But it’s all about the ‘pressure phaya’!”

Ah, that word pressure – a bedfellow for the Springboks, and a swear word for the Proteas.

And this time, it wasn’t the batting that crumbled, but the bowling. As good as the likes of Rachin Ravindra and Kane Williamson are, there is no way that the South Africans should have conceded 362 runs in their 50 overs.

So, it was a poor bowling effort, exacerbated by the omission of a second specialist spinner in Tabraiz Shamsi, who gives it more of a rip than Keshav Maharaj does, and which New Zealand exploited with four tweakers, spearheaded by the excellent skipper Mitchell Santner.

In contrast, SA’s four pacemen all conceded seven runs or more per over.

Trying to make myself feel better, I tweeted after the Kiwis’ innings: “New Zealand are 20 runs short”, evoking memories of Jacques Kallis’ famous words in the dressing-room at the halfway mark of the 438 game against Australia.

But the Proteas didn’t have a Herschelle Gibbs around to smash the bowlers all around the Gaddafi Stadium, and they never got out of second gear, right from the start with openers Temba Bavuma and Ryan Rickelton.

The final straw was the big wicket of Heinrich Klaasen, who played a terrible shot by be out for three to Santner.

Hopefully that will be a lesson to the Proteas management that they need to try something different when faced with a unique knockout scenario.

Having conceded 362 runs, why not move your best batters, Klaasen and David Miller, up the order? Or at least one of them?

But in the good old-fashioned South African way, they stuck to their guns with their batting line-up, and a predictable ICC semi-final defeat was the result.

There is no shortage of new faces who can give the Proteas a serious shake-up in the batting line-up ahead of the 2027 World Cup in South Africa.

Surely Lhuan-dre Pretorius needs to be in the set-up now? And it is still astonishing to me that Dewald Brevis is not playing international cricket at the moment.

The SA limited-overs set-up need to be brave and take a leaf out of Proteas Test coach Shukri Conrad’s book, as the wily old mentor turned Tristan Stubbs of all people from a T20 specialist into a top-class Test No 3 batter.

If that kind of sentiment is not embraced in South African cricket going forward, get ready for more tears on a rain-affected night somewhere in Mzansi at the 2027 World Cup...