Sometimes resignation is better than resolve
As South Africa attempt a huge chase in Durban, Neil Manthorp says, on SuperSport.com , that they need a hero
Dustin Silgardo
25-Feb-2013
As South Africa attempt a huge chase in Durban, Neil Manthorp says, on SuperSport.com, that they need a hero. He points to Gary Kirsten's 275 in Durban in 1999, which he says saved Kirsten's career, and says perhaps one of the members of the current team who are under pressure should take the approach Kirsten did in that game: that it is better to accept one's fate and just bat calmly in the hope of going out on a high.
The difficulty for the likes of Jacques Rudolph, Ashwell Prince and Mark Boucher is that a white-knuckled, intense determination is unlikely to help them as they contemplate the dreadful, personal consequences of failure in the second innings. Instead, like Kirsten did at the end of 1999, they will be better served by coming to terms with the reality that all good things come to an end. Their best chance of ensuring that it doesn’t happen will be to be at peace with their fate when they walk out to bat sometime in the next two days.
Dustin Silgardo is a former sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo