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Cape Town – Their clear-cut defeat to India in Pool B on Sunday has seen Australians further devalue old southern hemisphere enemy South Africa’s chances of winning the 2015 World Cup.
Readers of prestigious newspaper the Sydney Morning Herald’s website (www.smh.com.au) rate the Proteas as only fifth likeliest now to grab the elusive spoils at the end of March.
A poll asks the simple question “Who will win the Cricket World Cup?” and respondents – almost 50,000 of them at the time of writing – not surprisingly remain pretty solidly behind the Australians themselves at 37 percent of the vote.
Next up come the already dangerous-looking New Zealand (22 percent) and then the Indian conquerors of AB de Villiers’s outfit at the MCG (21 percent).
But with the Proteas having made such an unconvincing start to the lengthy tournament, after a laboured win over Zimbabwe and then the unexpectedly heavy India loss, poll participants have gleefully stuck the knife in: there is even superior support (at nine percent) for “one of the minnow nations” (Afghanistan, Scotland, Ireland and United Arab Emirates) to lift the trophy.
South Africa then come in at eight percent, and thereafter come dribbles of support in the poll (not more than one percent in any instance) for the likes of England – to whom Aussies are also so seldom charitable! – Sri Lanka and Pakistan.
*On the official ICC one-day international rankings, at least as constituted before the weekend’s World Cup matches, the Proteas lie a more respectable third behind Australia and India in that order.
*Follow our chief writer on Twitter: @RobHouwing
