(REUTERS) – When the soul-searching stops, South Africa will in all probability blame a brittle middle order for their latest bout of big stage fright. The six-run defeat by England was the lone blot in their otherwise impressive World Cup Group B campaign that suggested they had ticked most of the boxes.
South Africa had recognised the spinner’s role in the sub-continent and abandoned their historical dependence on pace to play three frontline tweakers.
With Imran Tahir, Johan Botha and Robin Peterson joining international cricket’s best new-ball pair in Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel, South Africa seemed to have struck the right balance between pace and spin.
None of their six Group B opponents batted out the full 50 overs.
New Zealand bucked the trend in Friday’s quarter-final but Morkel and his bowling colleagues did well to restrict them to 221-8, hardly the toughest assignment for a batting line-up who had chased down a 297-run target against India.
At 108-2, South Africa were cruising when Jacques Kallis departed and the team abruptly collapsed for 172 inside 44 overs.
“No words to describe how I feel,” a dejected Graeme Smith said after the sad end to his stint as 50 overs captain.
“A very disappointing evening. I thought we bowled pretty well. At 100-2, we were sitting well, and then we lost too many wickets.
“I think batting let us down in the middle period. It is as simple as that. I don’t think it’s anything else.
South Africa could not have asked more from their bowlers but will be justified in feeling that the middle order let them down.

THINGS TO COME
The defeat by England was a sign of things to come as South Africa, chasing 172, raced to 124-3 before succumbing to a batting collapse to fold for 165.
Chasing 297 against India, South Africa suffered a similar middle-order collapse before Robin Peterson’s unbeaten seven-ball 18 saw them through.
South Africa’s ploy to use AB de Villiers as the wicketkeeper did not really work as the top order batsman struggled to shoulder the double workload and suffered a back spasm.
Morne van Wyk was handed the keeping gloves instead and, while he did a decent job behind the stumps, he did little to prop up the middle order.
de Villiers was back behind the stumps for the quarter-final against New Zealand but the middle order frailties remained.
South Africa’s chase was derailed as early as in the 28th over — a “crazy five overs” according to Smith — and middle order batsmen JP Duminy and Faf du Plessis can not escape their share of the blame.
Duminy got out at the most inopportune time trying to slash a straight delivery from Nathan McCullum and two balls later, du Plessis called de Villiers for a single that was not there and the latter was run-out.
This was a morale-shattering defeat for a team who were determined to put their four World Cup knockout defeats behind them and, more importantly, seemed to possess the wherewithal to go all the way.
But history repeated itself and once again they flattered to deceive, just like once again New Zealand performed above expectations.