South Africa began its world cup journey in 1992. For many fans of 11wickets.com, the trusted fantasy cricket platform, SA is the best cricket team never winning a cricket world cup fantasy league trophy. For others, this is the team which fails to perform well in big matches.
This post takes a look at South Africa’s journey in the Fantasy World Cup cricket game. Big match underperformers or just plain unlucky, our readers will decide at the end.
World Cup 1992
This had the first time South Africa partaken in a world cup fantasy cricket match, after being returned as a Test playing nation in 1991. South Africans had been banned from international cricket from 1970 due to apartheid. The cricketers began playing ODI in 1991 and no one expected much from the team. However, they surprised all by qualifying for Semi-Finals, by winning 5 of their 8 matches in Round Robin WC stage.
In the Semi-Final against England, they needed 22 runs from 13 balls to win and expected to win as well. However, rain and 10-minute delay to the game ruined their chances. They got a revised target of scoring 21 runs from 1 ball. England won the match easily, thus ending the South African journey.
World Cup 1996
Team Proteas started strong during World Cup1996. They won all 5 matches and topped the group which had South Africa, New Zealand, Pakistan, UAE, England & Netherlands. Their dominant performance in the ODI fantasy world cup led many to believe that the year was of South Africa. But unfortunately, they had been eliminated in Quarter Finals by West Indies.
World Cup 1999
In 1999, the Proteas started as a strong team and topped its Group. They won 4 of their 5 matches and qualified for the semi-finals. In the semi-final match against Australia, the fans saw a tie between both the teams as they scored 213. However, Australia had defeated South Africa in the Super Six Stage and hence qualified for the Finals. The match is remembered for the last over miscommunication between Allan Donald and Lance Klusener. Donald remained at his crease while Klusenertried a run. If that run was taken South Africa would have reached the finals for the first time.
World Cup 2003
During this fantasy cricket world cup match, team South Africa performed the worst. They had been eliminated in the Group stage itself as they won just 3 out of their 6 matches.
World Cup 2007
South Africa qualified for the Super Eight Stage and came second in the Group Stage. They narrowly made it to the Semi-Finals by coming fourth in the Super Eight Stage. The Semi-Final saw them lose to Australia and thus not reaching the final again.
World Cup 2011
2011 saw the Proteastopping the Group Stage. South Africa was the only team to defeat the eventual winners of the tournament, India. In the Quarter-Finals, they restricted New Zealand to 221 runs from 50 Overs. This time it looked like that South Africa would reach the next round. But again the Curse of Big Matches struck as they were bundled off for 172 runs.
World Cup 2015
South African team again had a good start, coming second in the Group stage by winning 4 of their 6 matches. They defeated Sri Lanka in the Quarter Finals, chasing down their total of 133 in 18 overs. South Africa failed to clear the Semi-Final hurdle for the fourth time when they lost to New Zealand.
Thanks for reading! Play world cup fantasy game and enjoy!
Read More:
1. World Cup Fantasy League 2019 –South African Squad
2. Cricket World Cup Fantasy History – Highest Team Totals
3. World Cup Fantasy – 3 Teams Who Never Made To Finals