Champions Trophy under-achievers

Manoj Vatsyayana

If there is any team that has under-achieved the most in the Champions Trophy it is South Africa, who this time failed to make it to the semi-finals despite enjoying the home advantage.

Graeme Smith’s South Africans fail to clear the first hurdle after posting just one win in three matches, again sparking debate whether they will ever be able to break the big-event jinx.

South Africa have hosted three big tournaments — the 2003 World Cup, 2007 Twenty20 World Championships and the 2009 Champions Trophy — but have failed to win any of them despite the home-ground advantage.

They were expected to top the four-team Group A of 2009 event but lost the opening match to Sri Lanka. After beating New Zealand, they faced England in a must-win match.

South Africa were let down by bowling in the big game as they conceded 323 runs to England before finishing at 301 despite a career-best 141 by Smith.

“Obviously, words like disappointment come to mind. It’s disappointing when you’ve played a knock like that and not to get over the line,” Smith said after the match.

“There really are no excuses to be made anymore. It’s the responsibility of the group of players to go and perform better in these (big) tournaments. This is a very disappointing moment for us.”

South Africa had entered the tournament as the world’s top-ranked team, but paceman Dale Steyn said after his team’s exit that trophies were more important than rankings. “You want to win silverware, you want to be known as a team that walks in to a competition and is able to dominate,” said Steyn. “Being ranked number one in Tests and one-dayers is a fantastic feeling, but every year it changes and it works on points. You won’t be able to take home any silverware from that.”

It was also an easily forgettable tournament for Sri Lanka and India. Kumar Sangakkara’s Sri Lankans started on an impressive note when they beat the hosts before losing their next two games against England and New Zealand to bow out of the tournament.

Two of their big players, batsman Sanath Jayasuriya and off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan, failed to do justice to their stature.

Jayasuriya, the world’s second-highest scorer (13,377) in one-dayers after Indian Sachin Tendulkar (16,903), could manage only 34 in three matches. Muralitharan, the world’s leading wicket-taker in Tests (783) and one-day internationals (512), appeared in two matches, conceding 106 runs in 18 overs for just one wicket.

India went into the tournament as one of the favourites, having won five successive bilateral one-day series and a tri-series. But they were under pressure after losing their opening match against Pakistan. They shared points with Australia in a rain-hit game and then beat a depleted West Indies side in their last match, but it came too late as they were already knocked out of the competition. “Of course, the first game we played we were off the boil. But apart from that game, the second was a wash-out and the third we won,” skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni had said after his team’s last match.

“You feel disappointed, but at the same time it is difficult to say whether this performance was bad.”

It was the second time this year after the Twenty20 World Championships in England that India had failed to make it to the semi-finals of a big event.

JOHANNESBURG, Wednesday, AFP