Friday, March 18th: South Africa is facing England in a T20 cricket match. Wait a second, didn’t we just do that already?
Same team, different country and the world’s biggest stage as far as T20 cricket is concerned as we are heading right into the T20 Cricket World Cup, where once again South Africa will know that only an overall victory and the holding up of the cup will be enough to prove to the world once and for all that we are not chokers.
But can we (finally) do it? Dare we hope?
ADVANTAGE SOUTH AFRICA
The format for this tournament is that there will be two groups of five battling it out to see which teams will advance to the semi-finals and then the hoped-for final.
South Africa start our campaign fresh from a courageous (or humiliating, depending which team you back) fight back against England that saw them win the last five limited overs matches on tour, including two T20 matches – the last one a quite comprehensive nine wicket thrashing with more than five overs to spare.
So with the psychological wounds fresh, that seems like the best game to open with. We follow those with matches against a struggling Sri Lanka and a beleaguered West Indian team who will be playing without two of their match winners in Narine and Pollard. The final team in our pool is a qualifier.
COULD THIS BE THE ONE?
With at least one of Australia, New Zealand and hosts India certain to miss out, we definitely have the easiest of passages to the second round. Where we will be two matches away from potentially holding up that cup.
T20 cricket being what it is, any of the top teams can beat the other on the day. Australia as proverbial enemies, New Zealand as a frequent world cup nemesis and India as the host nation who recently thoroughly embarrassed us in the test portion of our tour there, suggest that the last two games needed will be hurdles of the highest order.
In our favour is that we did recently win our first ever T20 series in India and so that will be fresh in the minds and hearts of our team who must know they carry such a huge weight of expectation once again.
But with AB Devilliers (71 off 29 balls) and Hashim Amla (69 off 38) having returned to their best against England, Tahir and Abbott being measly while taking wickets, and All Rounders Wiese and Morris showing they are ready to stand up and win games with adventurous batting, South Africa is looking good. Add a returning in-form Quinton de Kock and world class Dale Steyn to the mix and perhaps anything is possible.
I BELIEVE, HELP MY UNBELIEF
I don’t think any South African supporter will completely believe it until we see the cup being held in the air. But we so desperately want to believe that this time, this time we have it in us to win.
What do you think? Is it finally time for the green and gold to get the gold?