“To choke”: According to my dictionary, this has a range of meanings: in terms of emotion, “paralyse, smother, stifle, kill — by deprivation of light, air, etc; suppress (feelings); block up wholly or partly; disgusted, disappointed; become speechless from emotion”, etc, etc.

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I think we’d all agree that this is not a very nice group of characteristics to have attached to a cricketer or a cricket team.  Yet, over recent years, South Africa have been branded as “chokers” for having conceded situations and results for no apparent reason when on the verge of triumph.  How can it be explained?

They are a strong team led by a strong captain in Graeme Smith, and they have achieved much in Test and limited-overs cricket since their return to the world stage in 1992. South Africa have some of the world’s truly outstanding cricketers in Smith, Jacques Kallis, AB de Villiers, Hashim Amla, JP Duminy, Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel, Johan Botha, and now Imran Tahir. And until recently, they fielded a spectacular batting star in Herschelle Gibbs, a fine all-rounder and captain in Hansie Cronje (soon to be disgraced), a redoubtable wicketkeeper-batsman in Mark Boucher, a ferocious bowler in Allan Donald, and a brilliant fast bowler/batsman in Shaun Pollock.

So what has gone wrong?  How could such a galaxy of talent not gather a stack of honours?

Let’s first strip away a myth. Ever since Gibbs dropped Steve Waugh in the World Cup Super Six match at Headingley in June 1999 (Gibbs attempted a showy, celebratory toss of the ball instead of making sure of the catch), the Australian captain has consistently had to deny that he teased the fieldsman with the remark, “You’ve just dropped the World Cup!” Waugh, 56 at the time, went on to score 120 not out and secure an unlikely victory. Poor Gibbs was left to reflect on his 101, which after all had not been sufficient to win the match.

Nonetheless, Hansie Cronje’s men made it through to the semifinals, and four days later, they met Australia again, this time at Edgbaston. Revenge was about to be achieved. South Africa, although nine down, needed only one run with four balls remaining, with Lance Klusener on strike, having hit a robust 31.

He had cracked fours off the first two balls of that final over to level the scores. His partner, who would not need to face a ball but probably would just have to scramble a single at worst, was Allan Donald. Waugh’s field, of course, was in close to cut off singles.

Damien Fleming bowled; and bowled again. Suddenly, it was a case of scores still level, but with three balls remaining now.Fleming pitched it up. Klusener whacked it towards mid-off and raced off. But Donald, for some reason or other, became hopelessly flustered and panicked. He hesitated, dropped his bat, and took off late as the ball was relayed from fieldsman Mark Waugh to the bowler, and finally, fatefully and fatally to wicketkeeper Gilchrist, with Donald not even halfway home.

Cronje lamented that “at the moment it feels like a cruel game”. What may not yet have been evident was the tag “chokers”, which was now labelling the wretched South Africans. Australia went on to win the World Cup for the second time, and poor South Africa were left with their shattered dreams.Perhaps, matters would improve for South Africa in 2003 in the next World Cup, the first to be staged on their home soil? 

Not a bit of it. Having lost their opening match against West Indies by three runs at Cape Town and suffered the misfortune of losing on a Duckworth/Lewis calculation after smashing 306 for six against New Zealand, there was a memorable botch in the night-time drizzle at Durban when South Africa, again faced with a D/L challenge, needed only one run from two balls against Sri Lanka to reach the Super Six stage.  The problem this time was one of a laughable lack of proper communication. Boucher had been led to believe that no further runs were needed to secure victory.  So, he blocked the final two deliveries, and ran exultantly from the field. However, the team’s brains trust this time had not so much choked as followed the wrong diet. As the players left that soggy field late into the night, seldom can cricketers’ faces have changed so swiftly from elation to tragedy as the South Africans realised the enormity of the gaffe.

Perhaps, it is in the stars that South Africa are destined never to take that World Cup? Their first attempt, back in 1992, had also ended in tears and rain, although that damp semifinal loss to England late at night in Sydney could not be regarded as a “choke”. The rules of the competition were questionable. When a late resumption was considered possible, the South Africans found themselves now faced by a derisory message on the SCG scoreboard: 22 needed off one ball.

Maybe there was one further real choker from which South Africa can take some small comfort. In the 2007 World Cup in the Caribbean, they were cruising to victory at Providence, Guyana, when Sri Lanka’s Lasith Malinga came on to bowl an electrifying over of fast swinging yorkers.  Smith’s men, chasing 210, were 206 for five and preparing to applaud their batsmen back to the pavilion as a fairly routine victory was sewn up. But the lightning-fast slinger curved the ball through Pollock’s wobbly defence and, next ball, had Andrew Hall pushing a catch to cover.

That was the end of the over. Victory was still only a stroke away, but South Africa were now seven down and twitching.

Malinga resumed. The mighty Kallis feathered a catch to the keeper to give Malinga his hat-trick. South Africa were now eight down and still grasping for a victory that seemed miraculously to be vanishing from vision in the face of this inspired spell of fast bowling. When he yorked Ntini next ball, Malinga had four in four, and South Africa’s nerve was red raw and throbbing.

Last man Robin Peterson was next in the firing line. He was almost bowled. Then he edged the winning runs: South Africa home by a neurotic one wicket. Graeme Smith paid tribute to Malinga, saying, “He made me age a few years.”

We’re all four years older now. Does maturity calm the nerves?  Is it in itself a problem to be branded a “choker” even if you feel you are not? Can the label become so oppressive that it ends up fulfilling itself?

We’re about to find out as South Africa take on India at Nagpur. South Africa’s coaches and advisors doubtless will be emphasising how they beat India in a Test match at that venue just over a year ago.  It was no small victory either: Amla and Kallis enjoyed a stand of 340 — though only after they’d “choked” at two down for six runs courtesy of Zaheer Khan. Smith’s men won by an innings then, little knowing that a week later they themselves would be crushed by an innings as Sehwag, Tendulkar, Laxman and Dhoni hit hundreds in Kolkata. South Africa didn’t choke that time. They were simply steamrollered. 

Right after that, they lost to India by one run in the one-dayer at Jaipur, which suggests another choker. Did South Africa really “choke” in these matches at Kolkata and Jaipur, or did they simply have the life choked out of them?  Perhaps, Graeme Smith and his men might take the field wearing copper-plated polo-neck shirts this time?— David Frith’s latest book is FRITH ON CRICKET (Great Northern Books)