What if: South Africa won the ‘99 World Cup semifinal?
In this section, we give alternate endings to memorable moments in sports and imagine how it would have impacted the present.
It's the summer of '99 as two of cricket's heavyweights Australia and South Africa battle it out in the semifinal of the World Cup in England.
The clash lives up to the billing and goes down in history as one of the greatest ODIs ever played.
But what if, instead of a tie, and Australia going through to the final, Allan Donald took the single that Lance Klusener called for and the Proteas went on to the final?
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Chokers no more
The Australian media and slowly the rest of the world media put the 'chokers' tag on the South African team.
The dreaded 'C-word' as many of the South Africans would call it, did not bode well with them.
They ignominiously exited from the next World Cup at home by messing up Duckworth/Lewis in a group stage match against Sri Lanka.
The next one, they once again reached the semis before freezing against Australia and in the next two, they lost against New Zealand from winning positions.
These all could have been averted if they had managed to win this game against Australia.
South Africa are not the only team that chokes but theirs seem to happen in ICC tournaments and get highlighted more.
ICC Silverware
Speaking of not choking, a team with players like Jacques Kallis, Dale Steyn and AB de Villiers should have had more ICC silverware. They only have one ICC Champions Trophy back in '98 but since then have nothing else.
You'd expect them to have won at least one World Cup, especially the one in '99 where they had a team that played a brand of cricket which was ahead of its time.
They were exceptional in fielding and they had a long batting order with power-hitters low down the order.
The team in 2007 and in 2015 were also ones with a lot of potential and perhaps those could have gone on to win it if they didn't have this monkey - which later turned into a gorilla - on their back.
Australia does not dominate the decade
Up until very recently, the Proteas have always been a top team in world cricket, reflected by their rankings.
They win bi-lateral series home and away and became the first team to beat a mighty Australia team in a Test series in Australia in 2008, becoming the first team to do so in over a decade-and-a-half.
They could have gone on to challenge Australia in ICC tournaments and had a few of those World Cups that Australia eventually ended up winning.
