Opinion Knockout blues

As the World Cup reaches the knockout stages, it’s crunch time for all the teams. But one team in particular will be feeling the heat — South Africa. Five times they’ve made it past the league stages in the World Cup, only to see their campaign end in despair. Next week, they will be returning to Sydney Cricket Ground, the scene of one of their worst World Cup ordeals. It was here, during the semifinals of 1992, that the infamous “rain rule” snatched defeat from the jaws of victory for the South African team. History is not on their side.

It doesn’t help that this time the Proteas have seemed to be a changed team. In all the World Cups, apart from the 2003 tournament, the South Africans have been their usual dominant self in the league stages, before coming a cropper in the knockouts. This year, however, from the start, their batting has looked inconsistent and over-dependent on their captain, the fearsome AB de Villiers. Their bowling has been below par, except for when Dale Steyn found his rhythm and de Villiers came to the rescue.

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There are two other teams in the quarter finals that have never won a World Cup and are equally hungry for one. New Zealand, co-hosts of the World Cup and eternal dark horse, have entered the knockouts as frontrunners. They come to the quarterfinals having demolished all opposition in the league stages and winning every one of their six matches. Then there is Bangladesh, entering the knockout stage for the first time. They will be unburdened by history as they face India in their next match. Could any one of these teams break the dominance of the usual suspects and bag the Cup? And could the swashbuckling Proteas finally smash their way through the knockouts, into victory? The bets are on.