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Birmingham - The Proteas and World Cups.
It is a combination that just does not work in any way, shape or form.
On Wednesday at Edgbaston, everything that could go wrong for South Africa at the business end of their crunch clash against New Zealand did.
Having set the Kiwis 242 for victory on what would prove a difficult wicket to score quickly on, the Proteas ran into a masterclass as the New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson hit 106* (138) to get his side over the line in the final over.
If the Proteas had managed to get Williamson out, they would probably have won the game and they would still be alive at the tournament.
With the pressure mounting all the time as the Black Caps got closer to their target, there were dropped catches, misfields and missed run out chances.
Perhaps the biggest moment, in hindsight, came with Imran Tahir's final ball of the day.
Williamson, who was 76* at the time, attempted to work Tahir to the off-side and looked to have played and missed.
Tahir showed immediate interest with half an appeal, but Quinton de Kock behind the stumps did not seem interested at all and the over was called.
Then, a couple of minutes later, television replays revealed that Williamson had in fact bottom edged the ball through to De Kock and he would have been given 'out' had the Proteas sent the decision upstairs.
Speaking after the match, a visibly gutted Du Plessis said it was not fair to pinpoint that as the moment the game was lost for South Africa.
"I think I was at long on at the time, and Quinny is the closest to the action. He's always my go to man," Du Plessis said.
"I just thought it was a plain miss.
"I just heard about it now at the post match that he said he had a nick on it.
"But even Kane said he didn't know he had edged it. He would have referred it too.
"That's not where the game was won and lost.
"If it was a perfect game, Kane would have been out and the game would have been really tight. But for me, that's not the difference today."
Why didn’t Kane Williamson walk ?? #CWC19 #SAvsNZ pic.twitter.com/H3Cj6M4pGy
— Paul Adams (@PaulAdams39) June 19, 2019
@LloydBurnard is in England covering the 2019 Cricket World Cup for Sport24 ...
