Black Caps hoping for history to repeat itself against Proteas
March 24th, 2011 - 5:59 pm ICT by ANIDhaka, Mar. 24 (ANI): The Black Caps are happy to be underdogs heading into tomorrow night’s quarterfinal against South Africa in Dhaka, but are quietly hoping for history to repeat itself when play gets under way.
Like our very own All Blacks, the South African cricket team has a track record of choking when it comes to the World Cup.
Since first taking part in the tournament in 1992, they’ve never made the final.
They’ve lost in the semifinals thrice, once in the quarterfinals, and in 2003, they surprisingly failed to make it to the Super Sixes phase.
It’s a terrible record for a team widely considered to have been one of the world’s best for the more than a decade and it’s one the Black Caps are desperate to continue.
“We know their record at World Cups and it will be in the back of their minds that they haven’t progressed as well as they should have,” stuff.co.nz quoted seamer Daryl Tuffey, as saying.
He added: “For us, we’ve made it to the semifinals regularly here.”
Adding fuel to the fire as they prepare for tomorrow’s must-win match against the Black Caps is that the South Africans haven’t beaten New Zealand at a World Cup since 1999.
In total, the teams have met five times at the tournament and the New Zealanders have won three of those matches.
Admittedly, the South Africans are in better shape than their rivals right now.
They qualified top of pool B after beating both India and the West Indies. Their only loss at this World Cup came against England.
The Black Caps, on the other hand, managed to beat the minnows in their pool and Pakistan, but suffered big losses at the hands of Australia and Sri Lanka to finish in fourth place.
Tomorrow’s match at Shere Bangla National Stadium will be New Zealand’s first at the venue since last year’s infamous 4-0 one-day series loss to Bangladesh. (ANI)
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