Klusener : You canât say the choker tag doesnât fit us because it does
South African legend Lance Klusener admitted to the Proteas having misfired during the big moments and said they will have to bear with the tag until a World Cup comes their way. Zulu, as he is fondly called, also relived those two excruciating World Cup exits he was part of in 1999 and 2003.
In an exclusive to the Hindu, Klusener talked about the 'choker' tag that has haunted the Proteas despite going into Cup after Cup with one of the best sides of the time. âItâs easy to place that tag because we havenât won a big one. But, unfortunately, we will have to deal with that till we win an ICC World Cup. But if you look back, you canât say the tag doesnât fit us because it does. We need to play those big moments better, have our players taking more responsibility. Maybe our preparation to tournament cricket needs to be looked at,â said Klusener.
The legend also painfully recounted the infamous 1999 World Cup run-out that sent Australia into the final and South Africa home. Talking about it, âI said to Allan, ideally I would like to hit another boundary and seal it that way. But I also said that if we could get a single somewhere we should take it as well. I could not score off the third.
âOff the fourth, it looked like a single to me, the ball went past the bowler. But Allan [watching the ball] had to turn before starting to run,â he told the Hindu.
(Also, read to find out how chasing teams achieved unprecedented success in recently concluded IPL)
He added, âI had the best seat in the house to judge the run. Unfortunately there was a lot of noise. And with Allanâs back turned the other side, he didnât really hear the call. I guess we all know what happened afterwards. People might say we should have waited for the next two balls. Whoâs to say the next delivery would not have been a great yorker from Fleming. Thatâs sports. There are no guarantees.â
Klusener then went on to describe the much-analyzed bungling-up of the 2003 World Cup at home after the dressing room sent wrong messages to the batsmen leading to their painful ouster. Klusener and Boucher, who were in the middle, received the wrong numbers on the D/L method and batted out the balls only to lose by a single run.
âI was batting and it was just unfortunate. The message we got was if we didnât lose a wicket in that over, we would go through on Duckworth and Lewis. We tied the game but lost out on a technicality.
âThe Duckworth Lewis gives you the par score for a tie. It was interpreted as that what was needed to win. We didnât read that well,â recounted Klusener to the Hindu.
Going on about the final ball, the Zulu added, âIf you go back and look at the final ball that Mark Boucher faced from Muttiah Muralitharan, he kind of tucked it into square-leg. If we wanted to run, we could have got a run quite easily. We didnât run because there was no need to risk a wicket. It cost us.
âI donât think Sri Lanka knew it either since their fielders were quite deep, and not really protecting a single.â
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