Johannesburg – South Africa’s 130-run loss to India in Melbourne on Sunday, in their second ICC Cricket World Cup group match, would not make any difference to their chances of winning the tournament, former cricketer Ali Bacher said.
“What happened today was a great spectacle for world cricket and well done to India, but the result has no bearing whatsoever on who will, or won’t, win the world cup,” he said.
Bacher felt the six-week tournament, being co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand, was much too long and the format flawed, but saw no reason why South Africa would not make it through to the quarter-finals.
“Barring a miracle, we will be in the quarter-finals in a few weeks time. Then, and only then, will the real World Cup come into play.
“In essence, the top teams will all get into the quarter-finals and then you need to win three matches to lift the trophy.
“Fourteen teams, divided into two pools of seven, are competing in the tournament, with the top four teams from each pool going through to the quarter-finals.
“Whether the top teams win all their league matches or not is irrelevant.” Bacher said.
“In a long tournament like this one, the key to success is to try and reach your peak when the knockout stages begin and not now.”
In the 1992 world cup, also in Australasia, Pakistan only just scraped through the roundrobin phase to make it into the semi-finals and went on to win the tournament.
Four years later, South Africa finished top of their group, with comprehensive wins in all their pool matches.
However, a century from Brian Lara in Karachi helped the West Indies to an easy victory in the quarterfinals, sending the Proteas packing. And who could forget when Steve Waugh’s one-day captaincy was on the line in 1999.
The Australians somehow clawed their way into the super-sixes and through to semi-finals, only to finish victorious at Lords in the final.
“You don’t win the world cup by excelling early on in the tournament,” Bacher said.
“Putting the match into context and playing in front of a big crowd, nothing that happened today has changed my view.
“There is a good feel about the South African team as well as their leadership. They still have a good chance of winning the world cup.” – Sapa