The 'new' South Africa
South Africa has been, for a glaring majority of its return to international cricket in 1992, a team that has hovered below Australia’s greatness but choked when it really mattered. Much of what it has achieved turned into a climate of commingled grief and exaltation. For beneath the seeming sculptured wins of Dhaka, Melbourne, and Nairobi, and home wins against every other side barring Australia, there remained a disconcerting substratum of vulnerability when it mattered most. A fine run in the 1996 World Cup ended in a dismal middle-order collapse against the innocuous spin of Roger Harper and Jimmy Adams in the quarterfinals; a 1-0 lead over Australia in the Carlton & United Series of 1997/98 ended in a 2-1 defeat; against Sri Lanka in the final of the Singer Triangular, the middle order collapsed to Muttiah Muralitharan; and in the first semi-final of the 2002-03 ICC Champions Trophy against India – ironically, the epitome of the word choker - South Africa were 192 for 1 chasi…
