Smith: Proteas are no chokers
South Africa Skipper Graeme Smith has rubbished the theory that the Proteas are the "chokers" of international cricket.
He, however, insisted that his side is going to develop into an even more formidable force.
South Africa have acquired an unwanted reputation for losing major semi-finals and fell at that hurdle in the 1992, 1999 and 2007 World Cups.
The same happened again on Thursday in the ICC World Twenty20, when after being unbeaten throughout the competition, they lost by seven runs to Pakistan at Trent Bridge.
But Graeme Smith has great faith in his players and has nothing but praise for the way they performed during the past two weeks before a fine all-round performance from Shahid Afridi led to their downfall.
Team improving quickly
Smith said: "If I look at the period of my captaincy, then in the last two and a half years the side has really started to take a massive upward curve.
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"It is a fast improving team in many facets.
"I think it is only going from strength to strength and it is only going to get stronger and stronger over the next period of time.
"I really believe that. This semi-final loss is really disappointing and will be a hard step for us to get over.
"But we've just got to keep playing our game and hopefully we will get that opportunity to play in a final.
"We've got to keep playing, keep thinking and keep developing our skills and hopefully we will get that chance."
The irritating word
Smith added: "Are we chokers? Every time we lose an important game, the word is thrown around.
"It was natural if we didn't win the semi-final that people were going to raise that comment.
"But maybe other teams choked in the Super-Eight stage.
"We could have lost a game in the Super Eights and not got to the semi-final but we played great cricket and we were just beaten on the day by a better team.
"I am very proud of the way we played the games played throughout the tournament."
Game keeps evolving
Smith believes international sides are starting to work out game plans which are effective in Twenty20 cricket.
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He said: "You can see from the totals that teams have worked out game plans especially from a bowling perspective.
"In the early days totals were often close to 180-200 but now totals are being managed a lot better by teams and defended a lot better.
"In the early times teams used to set targets but now teams are defending totals. The game has developed.
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"We have won a lot of games in a row. We have worked out a good formula. It is just the nature of the game that you are going to lose sometimes."
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