Proteas embrace new, aggressive 'normal' and peculiar Benoni for must-win Dutch assignment

For decades, the Proteas have been criticised - justifiably so - for their inability to close out matches at world tournaments when the stakes are at their highest.

Call it choking or lacking a sense of occasion, the tag hangs like an albatross around the national cricket team's neck and heaps pressure on every relevant squad enlisted for such assignments.

Yet when South Africa goes into Friday's second ODI against the Netherlands at Willowmoore Park in Benoni, they do so with a bizarre new form of tension clouding their build-up.