South Africa stayed true to their chokers tag: Habibul Bashar

South Africa's ability to shoot themselves in the foot in the ICC events came to the fore yet again after the Proteas were dumped out of the ongoing T20 World Cup following a shock defeat to the Netherlands. Former Bangladeshi skipper Habibul Bashar reckoned that it won't be unwarranted to call Temba Bavuma's side chokers after their surprising exit.

Temba Bavuma's side were the favorites to reach the semis as group leaders despite a defeat to Pakistan in their last outing. But the African side were subjected to an embarrassing defeat by the Dutch in their last outing, knocking them out of the tournament. South Africa's defeat meant India qualified for the semis, while Pakistan and Bangladesh had their fate in their own hands.

Former Bangladeshi cricketer Habibul Bashar reckoned that the label of chokers should not affect the players after this performance as their horrid run in the ICC events continues. He feels that South Africa should have won the game given the Netherlands' reputation in the Super 12 stage of the tournament.

"If you call the South African team chokers right now, they won't mind it. Because it has been established now whenever they play at the bigger tournaments like the World Cups, they always fail. It was supposed to be an easy game for South Africa because the Netherlands had struggled in the tournament, especially with their batting. South Africa started the tournament well, even though they lost against Pakistan, they should've won this game," said the former Bangladesh international on BatBricks7 presents Run Ki Runneeti show on CricTracker.

With Temba Bavuma in the side, South Africa were a batter short in the match: Habibul Bashar

The ex-cricketer also felt that the famed Protean pace attack did not live up to their name in the match and were under the pump barring speedster Anrich Nortje. He was disappointed with the performance of the batters who should've chased down the target on a batting-friendly surface.

"Except for Nortje, every South African bowler went for runs. It was a good batting track and the score shouldn't have been enough. But the South African batters were always behind the game, and their skippers' poor form meant they were a batter short in the contest," Bashar added.