With probably the best domestic league in the world and some of the best players, Spain still do not achieve anything on football's global stage as a national side - and it's as infuriating as it is bewildering.

South Africa are cricket's equivalent to the Spanish football side. It does not matter how they are performing in the build-up to a World Cup or who is in the side, they will fall short. Currently riding the crest of a wave after taking over from Australia at the top of the ODI rankings following their brutal slaughter of the Pakistanis, they will still find a way to make a complete hash of things in the Caribbean. it wouldn't be the first time.

Think back to 1992 when a great semi-final between England and South Africa had the Proteas in the box seat until a brief shower. Without the Duckworth-Lewis method at the time, a farcical situation arose by which South Africa needed 16 runs off one delivery to win a game they looked all but incapable of losing.

South Africa are cricket's equivalent to the Spanish football side. It does not matter how they are performing in the build-up - they will fall short


Unless someone managed to peg 15 consecutive deliveries down the leg side it was, of course, impossible and prompted Messrs Duckworth and Lewis to conjure up their magical scheme for deciding the outcome of rain-affected matches.

Think back to 1996 when Brian Lara's century had set the pace, but the total still looked utterly gettable after Daryl Cullinan and Andrew Hudson had racked up half-centuries to put South Africa well on course. Then, that rarest of rarities, a West indian spin duo, ripped through the South African innings. Roger Harper made an utter mockery of a much-lauded batting line-up with 4-47 while Jimmy Adams' left-arm dobbers took 3-53, leaving the West Indies 19-run victors.

Think back to 1999 and the infamous match against Australia at Edgbaston. Having fought out a brilliantly-tense match in the Super Six stage at Leeds, the two sides repeated the epic at Birmingham in the semi-finals. A superb performance in the field saw South Africa bowl out Australia for just 213 with four balls left unused. Shaun Pollock was unplayable, taking 5-36, while Allan Donald helped himself to 4-32 at the other end. In between times, Steve Waugh and Michael Bevan made typically doughty and obdurate half-centuries for Australia to post a total that gave the bowlers something.

Most famously was the drop off Waugh by Herschelle Gibbs. With Australia deep in trouble, that could have been the end, to which urban legend says that Waugh told Gibbs that he'd "just dropped the World Cup". South Africa began shakily and needed Jacques Kallis to steady the ship before Lance Klusener blasted a typically quick and typically unbeaten 30-odd to put South Africa on the front foot before two comical run-outs left South Africa all out for 213 and out of the competition as a result of finishing below Australia in the Super Six stage. And they only did that because of a minutely-inferior net run rate.

In 2003, and as hosts, expectation was high. In a match continually interrupted by the weather against New Zealand - effectively a knock-out match as it really was winner-take-all - the batsmen were supplied with the Duckworth-Lewis tables showing where they needed to be at which point to stay in the hunt of progressing.

Crucially, it was said that those numbers related to how many runs were required to win. They did not. They were for a tie. And turning down a gettable single one ball before the umpires finally took the sides off proved crucial and South Africa had done it again.

And it's bound to happen again. It's written in the stars. South Africa may be running out of bizarre and comedic ways of achieving their customary demise, but I look forward to finding out how they manage it this time.

Has our author got it wrong or can South Africa make amends this time? Send your views to Sportingo.