Oz were too well balanced ...lessons for the RWC

The best strike attack, great fielding.....solid batting. And above all no selection madness like having no fifth bowler....and an overawed opener/ wicker keeper.

NZ deserved to beat the Proteas. They did very well. But the Proteas had more talent. A player like Taylor, perhaps even Elliott would not have made the Proteas team. So it has to be in the head, call it what you like, the Proteas bottled out.

What are the lessons for the RWC? Select competitors, the guys who want the ball in the last few minutes. Secondly don't assume form in lesser events will carry over to the WC, we were totally fooled by the West Indies series. And make sure all the obvious needs are covered....a world class goal kicker, a world class lineout jumper....halves who can control a game.

Many excuses are made for the Proteas, but they got it wrong. A fragile wicket keeper, no fifth bowler....a captain who allowed emotion to influence his decision making. It showed up in losing 3 of the 4 games we played against worthy opposition.

Let's hope we study the professionalism of the Aussies. WCs are won by men, not boys

I am happy Oz won, because I could not entertain the idea of NZ winning 2 world cups in one year.

NZ had better bowlers than we did, but they relied heavily, as the Proteas did, on one man to carry them ... and this time McCullum failed. OZ had by far the most balanced and in form team.

A fragile wicket keeper, what utter rubbish.....last I checked the Aussies had an opener in Finch who has hardly set the WC alight.

Reality is SA do not have a genuine all rounder and therefore had to make do with the likes of JP as the 5th bowler. Not a problem when you consider he only goes for just over 5 po throughout his career.

We lost the semi because two of the worlds premier bowlers in Steyn and Philander, failed to deliver......it is as simple as that......it had very little to do with our keeper and 5th bowler.

Steyn and Philander failed......had they been on song we would have walked the semi......hell most sides should be able to defend 298 in 43 overs, comfortably....especially when you have Steyn, Morkel, Philander and Tahir in the ranks.

You want to point fingers, point them at the senior players like Steyn, Philander and Amla on the day.....End of 

Steyn and Philander lost us the semi and that is a FACT.

No-one can question their ability but they were piss poor on the day - FACT  

The lack of a fifth credible bowler, and fielding mistakes cost us. Steyn was struggling physically,  if Abbott was in instead of de Kock he could have bowled the last over.....and not to Elliott, he would have beebn stumped by a competent wicket keepr.

Having de Villiers bowl in the crucial last 6 overs was sheer madness, brought about by the fact Duminy couldn't be relied on.

It was obvious we needed a fifth bowler even if we weakened the batting slightly. But even that could have been avoided by simply dropping the frozen in the headlights de Kock.

Once again your young gun gloriously hitting sixes in the glowing sun strategy proves to be a fantasy....and a WC loser .

Rubbish.....Steyn and Philander failed for the majority of their 10 overs......they were expensive and took few wickets. Their job is to contain and strike....they failed miserably......they are senior players ranked high up in the rankings......they failed.

de Kock was fine, he batted beautifully against Sri Lanka and was hardly beaten against NZ......Amla was not scoring runs, de Kock decided to attack....it did not work, much like Mc Cullum against Oz. de Kocks keeping was very good throughout the WC......that missed run-out had very little to do with him and everything to do with a misdirected throw that skidded in.

JP bowled beautifully against Sri Lanka and was no worse than Steyn, Philander and AB in the semi......its not his job to be better than Steyn and Philander.

We lost that semi primarily because Steyn and Philander failed with the ball, to a lesser extent because Amla and de Kock failed with the bat and to some degree because Faf had a piss poor strike rate and because AB, de Kock/Rossouw and JP/Berhardien missed out in the field.

The players at the top of their art and senior in that side are Steyn, Philander and Amla......they failed when we needed them to shine. Had they shone, we would have walked it.

The batting side did the job in scoring the 298 in 43......our bowlers let us down........our strike bowlers in Steyn and Philander......this is beyond dispute and not up for debate......Steyn and Philander lost us that game.

Wrong you play with 4 specialist bowlers and a good allrounder - if you don't have an out and out allrounder you play a more than handy part timer like JP as your 5th bowler. JP's record speaks for itself......just over 5 runs per over is not an issue....when will you grasp this very basic fact?

We never lost because of our 5th bowler we lost because two of our specialists were crap on the day.

If the coach and management team were stupid enough to select injured players then the blame for the loss rests with them.

Injury free, the selection of our side was 100% spot on......sadly some of our senior players failed us.