Another World Cup, and another defeat. I think our players did their best, even if they were not at their best - I don’t think that their bowling upfront was fantastic.  I certainly think, just as was in the case in Australia. 20 years or so ago, that we were robbed by the rain. Our players really were in a good position to smash New Zealand all over the park, with 12 overs to go, and were suddenly told that the only had 5.  A far higher score, which would have been far harder to chase down was certainly going to be scored, and so we once again got very unlucky with the weather.

We still had our chances, and the bowling upfront to the New Zealand openers was not good enough, with the result that they got smashed all over the park and New Zealand achieved the highest successful run chase in a World Cup knockout match. To make it worse, at the end of the day we lost the match to an all rounder from Johannesburg, who apparently had struggled to make the Transvaal team and had then moved to Griqualand before going to New Zealand.

All credit to him, Grant Elliott, showing that if you are passionate enough about something and you believe in yourself and you keep trying, you will eventually succeed – from Griqualand to Man of the Match for New Zealand in a World Cup semi-final. He is not the first talent that we haven’t recognized on your nurtured properly in South Africa and we have lost talented players to many other countries over the years, and many other sports as well.  He was cool and collected, while everyone else panicked, and he took the game away from us when it finally looked like it was ours.  I don’t feel devastated, I do feel disappointed and I guess it becomes tough to watch the same thing happen every 4 years and to then build up all your hopes again. Our batsmen were fantastic, but if I take out Morkel and Tahir, I can’t say the same for bowlers.  Cool heads in the last few overs may have seen a run out or a catch that could have changed the whole match, but, it was not to be and despite that, I can’t say that I blame them.  I enjoy the description on ESPN cricket “Oh what a night.  We will never forget it…..Vettori squeezing out a Yorker in the for four in the final over, Elliott ending it with a six, the tears of Morkel, the roar of Elliot, what would this World Cup be without this match?”