The elephant in the room regarding the Proteas at ICC events – not just World Cups – is that they have continued to ‘choke’ in decisive games. But more specifically, with an overall win rate of 59.38% at World Cups, they have yet to bring home that coveted trophy.

In fact, they have never even made it to the finals before. South Africa have often been favourites ahead of the world showpiece, but always seemed to have buckled in big moments. This was evident in them making schoolboy errors and unconventional misreads during vital games that eventually led to their demise. 

Granted, weather conditions have also not always been on their side, especially when the D/L Method came into play. But that is no one’s fault.

There were only two World Cups where the Proteas really were simply not good enough – in 2003 and 2019. In 2003, they failed to even make the play-offs, having won three games, lost two and tied one in the group stage. What was more disappointing there was that they were the hosts and they really failed to make a statement as such.

In 2019, South Africa was woeful. In a simple round-robin format, they won only three of their nine games, which included a loss to Bangladesh. They only managed to beat Australia in a dead rubber right at the end of that phase, but it was too little too late by then.

The Proteas were knocked out in the semis in four tournaments – in 1992, 1999, 2007 and 2015. It was probably the 1999 and 2015 editions that were the most heartbreaking because they were so much better than what their death performances revealed. 

In 1999, terrible misjudgments in running between the creases cost them, while iffy and shaky fielding towards the latter part of their total defence was their downfall in 2015. They were knocked out by Australia and New Zealand in those two tournaments respectively.

What made 2015 worse was that that same Black Caps side knocked SA out the quarter-finals in four years earlier, when they really shouldn’t have. They were defending a below-par total of 221-8, but SA ‘choked’ and warped unconventionally to get bowled out for just 172.

In fact, New Zealand seems to be SA’s bogey side at World Cups. The Proteas have a dire record against them, recording just two victories in eight games. Next on their bogey list is Australia, whom the Proteas have beaten only twice in six encounters.

In total, SA has won 38 out of 64 World Cup ODIs since 1992. They’d lost 24, tied one (against Sri Lanka in 2003) and only one was declared as no result due to rain (against West Indies in 2019). In terms of winning percentage, the Proteas recorded their best (83.33%) at the 1996 World Cup, where they won five out of six games.

This was followed by a 71.43% win rate at the 2011 tournament. Ironically, in both those aforementioned World Cups, SA was knocked out in the quarters – to WI in 1996 and NZ in 2011.

All-in-all, the Proteas have won four out of six World Cup games against WI, three out of seven against England, three out of five against Pakistan, four out of six against SL (one tie), three out of five against India and, disappointingly, only two out of four against Bangladesh.  

SA is unbeaten against Netherlands (3/3), the United Arab Emirates (2/2) and Ireland (3/3), and they had racked up solitary victories over Canada (in 2003), Scotland (in 2007) and Afghanistan (in 2019).

The Proteas will look to getting this irritating monkey off their backs at this year’s World Cup, not only because they always get ridiculed for it, but because they actually are good enough to win it. Their consistency between World Cups is evidence of that.

The side will especially want to right most of their wrongs from the 2019 tournament. Even more so, because many of those contingent of players have managed to stick around, such as Quinton de Kock, Rassie van der Dussen, David Miller, Aiden Markram, Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi, Anrich Nortje and Tabraiz Shamsi. 

The Proteas will kick-start their campaign against Sri Lanka in Delhi on October 7.