What is cricket all about? Passion? Persistence? Zeal? Stubbornness? Maybe everything. A hint of all this was seen when teams like New Zealand, South Africa, Australia, and India took the field in the previous edition of the World Cup.
“One’s loss is another’s gain.”
There are times when it feels as if this famous phrase is formed to explain the game of glorious uncertainties.
Emotional scenes from the semi-final of the World Cup 2015 between New Zealand and South Africa are still fresh in everybody’s minds. From AB de Villiers to Dale Steyn, every Protea player was down on the ground crying like a kid who had just lost his favourite toy.
But these emotions are necessary and they depict the passion that a player has towards his game.
WATCH: New Zealand vs South Africa semi-final match from World Cup 2015
A couple of days back, Pakistan had lost to India and they were not “criticized” but were “trolled.” Why? Because from pundits to fans, everyone felt that the zeal that Sarfaraz’s side should have shown was missing.
But this wasn’t the case with AB de Villiers-led South Africa unit in 2015. They fought and fought hard. The end result might not have been in their favour but the commitment with which South Africa played then, was positive.
Now things have certainly changed, South Africa have a changed captain and a few new faces in their ranks but one thing that they can replicate from 2015 is the avidity.
They have lost a couple of games with big margins and their third defeat was an upset of this edition still they have four matches and three points. They have players who can turn around any game on their day. They have a captain who knows his job pretty well. The only void that South Africa needs to fill is their adherence towards their game. This won’t guarantee results but things might fall in place for this African cricketing power.
As they say, fear of losing something is more dangerous than actually losing it. So, the only resort that’s left with this unit is that forget about these five matches and focus on what’s coming.
