South Africa's Unrealised Dream

South Africa can be considered as the most unfortunate side in the cricketing world.

It is the only team to chase a target of over 400 runs in a one day international (434 runs to be precise) against Australia.

It has top quality batsmen, top quality bowlers and perhaps the best fielders in the world.

But in spite of all this, the South African team does not have any World Cup to its credit and this is not because it doesn't perform, but because its luck turns against it. This has not happened once, but thrice.

In the Semi-Final of the 1992 World Cup, the South African team needed 22 runs from 13 bowls when the rains came and by the application of Duckworth Lewis method, the revised target was 22 runs from one ball.

In the 1999 World Cup, it reached the Semi-Finals, played against Australia , tied the match but due to a better net run rate the Australian team qualified for the finals and went on to win the World Cup defeating Pakistan in the Finals.

Similarly, during the maiden T20 World Cup, it lost the final league match against India and failed to qualify for the Super Six category, in spite of not losing a single game [excepting to the one with India]

It is the No. 2 ranked team in both Tests as well as Odis and was the No. 1 ranked team for a short period.

After being embroiled in controversies, first about Apartheid and then with match fixing, the South African team has emerged to be a great team.

But, even then its luck is disallowing the team the World Cup that it rightfully deserves.

with the south African team its more like,"there's many a slip between the cup and the lip." It reaches till the end but is unable to convert and hence it has to bow down.

Will its luck ever change? Will it ever win the world cup? Is something that remains to be seen. But whatever happens, the South African team will always be a force to reckon with!