Our cricket team has done it again. They choked and badly too. I came back from evening prayers (which end later due to Ramadaan) to switch on the radio, to hear that we needed 53 from 3 to 4 overs. I thought, well we only need about 30 from 4 overs to qualify, and this is doable. I was wrong. A whole range of stupid shots saw us knocked out. If we just looked for 1's and 2's we could have made it was not to be.
This brings up another issue - How winning can hide the weaknesses of a side. In this particular case I am referring to our top order and more specifically AB de Villiers. He is certainly a talented player but seems to fail on 4 out 5 occasions and comes great the one other time. In this series, he scored 16, 14 not out (Bangladesh),18, 1 and 1 - an average of 12.5. Now for 20-20 you might say this is ok but this guys bats at 3. Going for 16 and 18 shows that he gets in and then gives it away. The 16 was against West Indies on a terrific pitch. Not to mention the 1's. What is worse though is that other players waiting on the sidelines have to wonder what they need to do to get in. I was disappointed that Gulam Bodi, who played brilliantly locally, did not get a single chance in the series - not even in the dead game against Bangladesh.
Hopefully our rugby guys will do better!