South Africa has always been known as a cricket nation that has strived for excellence. Although they have attained No.1 rankings in three formats in the past, they have never managed to lift teh trophy in any of the global ICC events. Their closest encounter in a World Cup match was against Australia in the 1999 World Cup semifinal and it will be remembered for ages. Lance Klusener was just 1 run away from guiding his team to the final of the marquee event.

Unfortunately, Klusener failed to steer his side home as Allan Donald was run out. Since then, Proteas have often been termed as the ‘chokers when it comes to big events. Each and every time when they participated in World Cup, their past records haunted them a lot. South African team was badly affected so much that they are yet to win the trophy in the World Cup tournament.

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Meanwhile, Faf du Plessis recalled an incident when he and his wife were targeted by some people on social media when the Proteas lost to New Zealand by 49 runs in the 2011 World Cup quarter-final. Chasing the target of 222, Proteas were bundled out for 172 runs. They had 40 balls in hand but they kept on losing wickets. It could have been an easy run chase but Kiwis fought really hard.

The 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup was held in India-Bangladesh and New Zealand. At the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Dhaka, Du Plessis played a knock of 36 off 43 while batting at No.6. However, his knock went in vain as the Proteas were eventually knocked out of the world event. The former South African skipper revealed how after the team’s loss, his wife was greeted with death threats.

As per the quotes in ESPNcricinfo’s Cricket Monthly, Faf du Plessis recalled, “I received death threats after that [match]. My wife received death threats. We turned on social media and we were blown away. It became very personal. There were some very offensive things said that I won’t repeat. All players go through this and it forces us to keep our circles very small. It’s why I’ve worked so hard on creating a safe space within our camp.”

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India won the ICC World Cup 2011 by beating Sri Lanka in the final at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. MS Dhoni was named the man of the match for his unbeaten knock of 91. Yuvraj Singh was named the man of the tournament for si contribution of 362 runs and 15 wickets.