T20 World Cup: Why South Africa keep 'choking' in ICC competitions

Temba Bavuma is the latest in a long line of South Africa captains to see the Proteas fail when well placed to win a major tournament

It's the day before South Africa's final T20 World Cup group game against the Netherlands.

Jeremy Snape, a mental skills coach who has worked with Crystal Palace and England Rugby, joins the BBC for a video call.

A win over the lowest ranked team left in the tournament will see the Proteas progress to the semi-finals.

Defeat, well, that's not likely to happen, is it?

Our conversation focuses on the concept of choking, which Snape describes as "losing from a winning position, or losing a game you should win, as a result of psychological pressures and the weight of expectation".

We play with hypotheticals where South Africa need 20 runs from the final 15 balls in the final against England.

This is now moot. South Africa crashed to a 13-run loss to a Dutch team containing four South African-born players. It's just one more sorry chapter in the sweeping tragicomedy that is the Proteas at International Cricket Council (ICC) tournaments.

And that's the point. This reverse, as clear an upset as you'll see, has come with a degree of predictability.

Since 1999, when South Africa managed to snatch a draw from the jaws of victory against Australia and thereby tumble out of the World Cup semi-final, this cricket team has worn the chokers' tag like a pillory.

Semi-final defeats in the 2007 and 2015 50-over World Cups hurt, as did T20 World Cup semi-final losses in 2009 and 2014. Since 1999, South Africa have also lost in four Champions Trophy semi-finals.

"Is every defeat a choke?" asks Snape, who worked with the Proteas between 2008 and 2011 in a bid to help rid themselves of this unwanted baggage.

"That depends. Often a team is simply beaten by the better team. Even if you perform at your best it doesn't guarantee success.

"But perceptions and traits can stick to teams, even if those individuals weren't involved in past mistakes or chokes.

"It's similar to generational trauma. Things that happen to older generations can have a lasting impact down the line."

Was Quinton de Kock thinking of Allan Donald's dropped bat at Edgbaston 23 years ago when he took guard on Sunday? At any point during his disappointing performance did Kagiso Rabada cast his mind back to the capitulation against New Zealand in 2011? It might have helped if they had done.

"We spend thousands of hours in cricket having throwdowns and talking tactics but very rarely talk about how the biggest opponent is in our own head," ex-Gloucestershire all-rounder Snape says. "The psychological component is for me the biggest obstacle.

"The first step in any elite environment should be talking about pressure and expectation. Those are two variables that are invariably going to come up during a game. But your mind can't be empty. It has to be filled with something.

"So if we anticipate that these things will arrive, and we unpack what they mean to us, we can overcome them by filling our mind with something positive, rather than something catastrophic."

Any athlete who fails to do this can easily slip into a fight or flight response. And though the threat of an inswinging yorker is not the same as a saber-toothed tiger, like our ancient ancestors a batter is more likely to survive if he keeps a cool head.

"We're in our best state when we're playing on instinct," Snape adds. "When we're choking, we dial up the consequences of our failure. We start to worry about what people will say about us and our character. We start to worry about tomorrow's newspapers rather than what the bowler might do next.

"That psychology moves into our physiology. It's almost an emotional hijack. Our knees get weak. We fixate on a single task, such as playing the ball over extra cover even when the shot isn't on.

"Our hands lose their sensation and our dexterity and agility diminish. It's a difficult spiral and it comes from a place of perceived shame and rejection."

This is partly why it is so fascinating for the rest of us. Upsets in sport have a charm in their own right, but there is something relatable when elite athletes stumble over a psychological hurdle when it matters most.

Snape equates this with getting nervous before delivering a best man's speech or writing an email to your boss when you're angry. Embarrassment and rejection are terrifying emotions and many of us would do anything to avoid them.

But this binary thinking can lead to a calcification in the mind, both for the athletes themselves and for those of us seeking an answer to the choking conundrum.

"In truth, the choking tag is a lazy construct most of the time," Snape says. "We can get fixated on this black and white issue when so often it's way more complicated and nuanced.

"It's headline grabbing and tugs on our emotions. But it's because we can all empathise with what the players are going through that we attach ourselves to their struggle."

That will be little consolation to captain Temba Bavuma and his teammates. They head home in ignominy. Again.

This loss also brings an end to Mark Boucher's tenure as coach. The former wicketkeeper criticised South Africa's energy levels, suggesting his team failed to adapt to the 10:30am start. It felt like a lame excuse but perhaps there's a nugget of truth in his explanation.

The Proteas were flat, but it wasn't the time of day that was to blame. Senior players were far from their best and every decision, including the one to bowl first, seemed to be steered by an invisible hand.

That hand continues to grip the throat of South Africans. Only a World Cup win will loosen its hold.

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