Aussies feel the heat of knockouts

SUDDENLY, it is the Australians who cannot stop talking about pressure as push comes to shove at the World Cup.

And that after South Africa exorcised 23 years of being haunted by their failures in the tournament by thrashing Sri Lanka by nine wickets in their quarterfinal on Wednesday.

The win in Sydney, SA’s first in the six sudden-death games they have played at the World Cup since 1992, will give them plenty of confidence heading into their semifinal in Auckland on Tuesday – when they will play the winners of tomorrow’s showdown between New Zealand and West Indies.

Today, an Australian team whose pre-tournament status as outright favourites was dented, when they lost their nerve and with it their match against New Zealand, play their quarterfinal against Pakistan in Adelaide. Pakistan administered SA’s timely wake-up call by beating the Proteas by 29 runs in Auckland 13 days ago.

But the Aussies will not have the insurance of a second chance against cricket’s most dangerous team today. Last week, Rilee Rossouw said “pressure” nine times in 82 seconds in an interview. Yesterday, the p-word peppered Australian captain Michael Clarke’s column in the Sydney Daily Telegraph.

“It takes skill not emotion to win these big matches,” he wrote “If you let the pressure and expectations get on top of you, that can be the hardest part of this game.”

Even the ice-man of cricket, Steve Waugh, has melted enough to offer views on how to survive and prosper when the moments loom larger.

“At the end of the day it’s about why did you first start playing cricket?

“Because you love the game and nothing’s changed. Don’t forget that when you get out there for the big games.”

That the Aussies wheeled Waugh out presumably to tell their team how not to drop the World Cup, also has an SA echo.

The South Africans, after all, have lined up everyone from Gary Kirsten to Charl Langeveldt to Mike Hussey to Mike Horn to help them perform under pressure. In fact, if South Africans didn’t know any better they might think the Aussies were wary of choking.

But, before they say so out loud, best they wait for their team to win four World Cups.

-Telford Vice