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If dejection, resignation and misery define the English performance in Kensington Oval, Bridgetown, Barbados in the 44rth match of super eights, mercurial, clinical, shimmering defines the South Africans. Professionalism was the key difference between two teams. “We were superb” were the words uttered by gleeful Protean players after the match. South African outshined and out played England in every facet of the game comprehensively.

Throughout the match, it seemed that England had lost the heart to compete in this world cup, or perhaps they had given in to the fact that it would be some more world cups before they could claim it first time in history. The fact that a minnow Bangladesh had beaten their opponents didn’t help to raise their spirits. After winning a not-so-crucial toss, skipper led the failure from the front. He and Ian Bell, with their guts scared out, faced  the not-so-hard attach of Charl Langeveldt and Shaun Pollock.

The English ship started sinking before it was in the deep waters. Ian Bell uttered a frustrated scream and got caught by Prince in an awful attempt to pull Charl Langeveldt. Andre Nel eased the misery of skipper Vaughan, when he was batting on 17 runs. The adrenaline pumped, passions rose high and the sentiments soared and the tension got more strained, and the matches was about to burst upon at the seams, as the Kevin Pietersen entered with a fury. 
But his fury was soon replaced by misery, when he listened to music played by his former buddies. Andre Nel was about to dig a hole in the ground, and was ready to bite at any thing, when he got Pietersen as a delicious pray. After a miserable performance for some 20 minutes, in which Pietersen scored 3 runs, Nel got his man in a style. The so-called ‘one match wonder’ Andrew Strauss tried to ignite his wonder in this much-needed match. He remained the highest scorer with 46 runs on 67 balls with 2 fours and 1 six.

His cause was supported by Mr. Dependable Paul Collingwood, who also scored the second highest 30 runs. But it was sensed strongly that even Collingwood was fedup now to the grinding and gut-wrenching task of getting England out of batting misery.

Freddie the Flintoff again royally failed, and nailed the English coffin for this world cup strongly. Ravi Bopara, the star of previous match, didn’t shine in this match and after scoring some convincing runs, ousted himself cheaply. The rest was a story that should better remain un-talked. 155 is not even a good score in twenty-twenty against South Africa, and England was giving them this in the super eights of world cup.

South Africans again negated the ‘choker’ label, by a fiery start. AB deVilliars taught English how to bat. He made Sajid Mahmood flinch and cry in agony by hitting him 28 runs in just 2 overs. By the time AB was through with his agile disdainful treatment of English cricket, he let Flintoff thankfully remove him from the scene. But his leader wasn’t in the mood for showing any compassion, and when he was the least favorite of Vaughan. He along with Kallis did what Australia did to Bangladesh in super eights; total demolition without a shade of mercy. If a team wins in just 100 minutes, 19 overs with the loss of 1 wicket, there is a very little chance that the opponents wouldn’t need a major surgery.