Fifteen years ago, in the semi-final of
the 1999 World Cup, South Africa and Australia contested what has widely come
to be regarded as the definitive
one-day international. A total of 426 runs in two innings, twenty wickets in
the day and world-class performances across the board - a match that built to a
pulsating finale in which South Africa threw away their place in the World Cup
final with what also came to be regarded as the definitive one-day choke.
Today, however, South Africa can be
called chokers no longer, after burying the ghosts of 1999 with victory in a
match even more extraordinary and nail-shredding than its illustrious forebear.
Never mind 426 runs in a day, Australia had just posted a world-record 434 for
4 in a single innings - the first 400-plus total in the history of the game -
with Ricky Ponting leading the line with an innings of cultured slogging that realized
164 runs of the highest class from just 105 balls. And yet they still lost - by
one wicket, with one ball to spare, and with the Wanderers stadium reverting to
the sort of Bullring atmosphere on which it forged its intimidating reputation.
At the halfway mark of
the day, South Africa had been reduced to a near laughing stock. Ponting had
been the kingpin as he reprised his world cup winning innings on this
very ground in 2003, but every one of Australia's batsmen had taken their pound
of flesh as well. Adam Gilchrist lit the blue touch paper with an
open-shouldered onslaught that realized 55 runs from 44 balls; Simon Katich provided
a sheet-anchor with a difference as he creamed nine fours and a six in a
90-ball 79, and Mike Hussey - in theory Ponting's second fiddle in their
158-run stand for the third wicket - hurtled to a 51-ball 81. Australia's
dominance seemed so complete that Andrew Symonds, the most notorious one-day
wrecker in their ranks, was not even called upon until the scoreboard read a
somewhat surreal 374 for 3.
Unsurprisingly, South
Africa's bowlers took a universal pounding. Jacques Kallis disappeared for 70
runs in six overs and as the innings reached its crescendo, a flustered Roger
Telemachus conceded 19 runs from four consecutive no-balls. The team had
squandered a 2-0 series lead and were staring at a 3-2 defeat, and not for the
first time this year, Graeme Smith's penchant for speaking his mind was looking
like backfiring. With the Test series getting underway in four days' time, the
need for a performance of pride had never been more urgent.
And so Smith took it
upon himself to deliver, responding to his team's indignity with a brutal
innings laced with fury. He made light of the early loss of Boeta Dippenaar,
whose anchorman approach would not have been suited to the chase at any rate,
and instead found the perfect ally in his former opening partner, Herschelle
Gibbs. On a pitch that might have been sent from the Gods, the pair launched
South Africa's response with a scathing stand of 187 from 121 balls, to send
the first frissons of anxiety through the Australian dressing-room.
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Smith made 90 from
just 55 balls, and seemed set to trump Ponting's 71-ball century when he
swatted the spinner, Michael Clarke, to Mike Hussey on the midwicket boundary.
But Hussey's celebrations were manic and betrayed the creeping sense of
foreboding that had taken hold of Australia's players. Just as South Africa had
suffered for the absence of Shaun Pollock, so too was Glenn McGrath's
constricting influence being missed. His understudies were simply not up to the
task, with Mick Lewis earning an unwanted place in history as his ten overs
were spanked for 113 runs - the most expensive analysis in any form of one-day
international cricket.
Now it was Gibbs who
took centre stage. The man who, memorably, dropped the World Cup at Headingley
in that 1999 campaign has redeemed himself a hundred times over in the
intervening years. But this was to be his crowning glory. With AB de Villiers
providing a sparky sidekick, Gibbs carved great chunks out of the asking-rate,
bringing up his century from 79 balls and rattling along so briskly that, by
the 25-over mark, South Africa had 229 for 2 on the board, and needed a mere
206 to win. .
In both instances, the
sheer impossibility of the task galvanised the batting and turned the fielders'
legs to jelly, and with Gibbs on 130, Nathan Bracken at mid-off dropped a
sitter off a Lewis full-toss, and could only contemplate his navel as the
Bullring roared its approval.
It was undeniably the
decisive moment of the match. Bracken finished with a creditable 5 for 67, but
this faux pas was written all across his features at the post-match
presentations. Cashing in superbly, Gibbs hurtled to his 150 from exactly 100
balls, bringing up the landmark with his fifth six of the innings and the 21st
of a bedlamic contest. He had reached a glorious 175 from 111 when Lee held
onto a scuffed drive at mid-off. The stadium stood in acclaim, but with 136
runs still required and their main source of momentum gone, South Africa had
plenty still to do.
Kallis and Mark
Boucher regrouped with a steady partnership of 28 in six overs, but when the
big-hitting Justin Kemp went cheaply, it took a blistering intervention from
Johan van der Wath to reignite the chase. He drilled Lewis over long-off for
two sixes in an over then added a six and a four in Bracken's eighth, as the
requirement dropped from a tricky 77 from 42 balls to a gettable 36 from 22. He
perished as he had lived, holing out to extra cover, and Telemachus followed
soon afterwards, but not before he had clubbed an invaluable 12 from six balls.
And so it all came
down to the final over, just as it had done at Edgbaston all those years ago.
Brett Lee had seven runs to defend, and South Africa had two wickets in hand. A
blazed four from Andrew Hall seemed to have settled the issue, but in a moment
reminiscent of Lance Klusener's famous aberration, he smeared the very next
delivery into the hands of Clarke at mid-on. Two runs needed then, and the No.
11, Makhaya Ntini, on strike. Lee's best effort was deflected to third man to
tie the scores, and it was left to Boucher - with visions of Edgbaston swirling
through his head - to seal the deal with a lofted four over mid-on. The most
breathtaking game in one-day history had come to a grandstand finish, and all
that remained was for the participants to pinch themselves.
By:-
AKSHAY CHAUDHARY
YASH AGARWAL
NIKHIL DALMIA
GIRI VARTHAN
PRATEEK KHANNA
VARUN JAGGA
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