Jacob Oram: South African cricket team don't deserve 'chokers' label

David Miller of South Africa. Photo / Getty Images

When most people talk about South Africa and the World Cup, the word "chokers" is often dropped into conversation.

Surely that can't apply this time around because this is a different team from four years ago (when we knocked them out of the quarter-finals), 12 years ago (when they mucked up the Duckworth-Lewis calculations) or 16 years ago (when Allan Donald was run out amid shambolic scenes).

New Zealand and South Africa look the most well-balanced sides at the World Cup. They have a powerful batting lineup and quality bowlers and don't seem to have any weaknesses.

The problem is, under the current format, New Zealand or South Africa could come unstuck in a quarter-final because someone in the opposition has a career-best day. I can see England, who have been poor, beating a team like India because someone like Eion Morgan fires.

It's not right that you can win six games and then be ousted in a one-off match and I preferred previous formats when teams carried through their points from pool play. It would be a lot fairer and mean every pool game was important. It would also mean the likes of England and Pakistan would have little chance of progressing to the semifinals given their current form.

The Black Caps, South Africa, India and Australia deserve to be in the final four. They have been the best teams so far, with New Zealand just having their noses in front.

They seem to be on autopilot at the moment and have balance throughout the side. I realise they only just beat Australia but it was a really good win against top opposition, helped by the fact that Kane Williamson held his nerve to see New Zealand through.

Pressure can do funny things to different people. I've already touched on South Africa's history of choking, and pressure and expectations were things I struggled with as my career went on.

Early on, I didn't really know what was happening but tried to just enjoy it. I was fulfilling a dream to play for my country, travelling the world and getting paid to play cricket. Nothing could be better.

After a while, I really struggled to deal with the pressure of living up to personal and outside expectations. Signing IPL and endorsement deals only raised the stakes and it started to have an effect on my game, especially when I didn't perform to my standards. When I was out of form and confidence, I didn't really know how to shake it off and it became a big problem. I beat myself up.

In the end, I realised the only option was to focus on what I was doing - the next game, my next over, my next ball. If I had a couple of failures, I had to put it out of my mind and focus on what was coming next.

The best players are able to do this and, from what I can see, South Africa have stacks of players like that. They will be tough to beat but every team is beatable, which still makes this World Cup wide open.