Moments of madness: 5 shots that the batsmen wished they never played

Mark Boucher’s block – South Africa vs Sri Lanka, World Cup 2003

Reactions after the Boucher block!

The world labels them as “Chokers” but the South Africans seem to find out the most outrageous ways to knock themselves out of various ICC tournaments. Be it the 22 run in 1 ball fiasco in 1992 or the brain explosion that Allan Donald and Lance Klusener suffered in 1999, the Proteas are masters in crumbling in the crunch situations.

But the game against Sri Lanka in the 2003 World Cup was an evidence of lack of game awareness. Chasing 269 for victory, the South Africa skipper Shaun Pollock and Mark Boucher added a valuable 63 runs for the sixth wicket after a mini collapse of the middle order.

Pollock was sent back by some brilliance from Muttiah Muralitharan on the field, but Lance Klusener and Boucher kept the hosts in the hunt.

At 229 for 5, rain forced the players off. The players and the officials hounded on the Duckworth-Lewis sheets to find out the that the match would end in a tie if the rain continued.

The rain continued, and South Africa were shown the door in their own country by a cruel tie. But the funny part was what happened before the rains came in. According to the Duckworth-Lewis par score, South Africa had to score 229 to be level with Sri Lanka but needed 1 more to win the contest.

The Proteas misunderstood the entire calculations and Boucher was handed a message that said 229 was enough. Mark Boucher, who was in cracking form, hit Muralitharan into the stands to take the South African total to 229 and thinking that he’s done his job played the last ball of the 45th over tamely to mid wicket and didn’t even look for a single.

That became the last ball of the game and South Africa fell short by a single.

People play horrendous shots to get out that often leads to the defeat of their team but a simple block from Boucher to mid wicket turned out to be the worst shot he ever offered on a cricket field.