I wonder if there is a greater sorrow in world cricket than being knocked out of the world cup after starting as one of the favourites, especially by a team that even the hardest optimist did not expect much from.
Nobody, as I said, nobody gave New Zealand a chance yesterday. After all, they were playing against what apparently was the most balanced side in the tournament. South Africa enjoyed being the best bowling side on paper, they batted deep, and fielded to excellence. They were certainly one of the sides to beat.
New Zealand, on the other hand, lacked talent. They lacked the sort of stars that most of the other teams in the tournament could sport. They were also haunted by a defamatory defeat to Bangladesh just before the world cup.
This was predicted to be the most one-sided of the quarter-finals, closely followed by Pakistan vs. West Indies. So much so that, people had already begun to talk about a semi-final involving South Africa. Then what went wrong? Did New Zealand outplay South Africa by pulling off a one-in-a-million performance or, as it has happened often in the past, did South Africa kill themselves?
Well, to me, it was a day when New Zealand did nothing wrong. They did not aim too high as they batted first and tried to keep it as steady - although slow - as possible. The openers fell early and Jesse Ryder had to meet Ross Taylor in the middle to form a fine stand of 114 runs. Taylor scored a vital 43 and Ryder top-scored with 83.
As Vettori said later, they were targeting 250. It is often important that a team does not get over-ambitious in a match like this. New Zealand were well-aware of the might of the South African attack and also their own limitations as a batting side. Hence, they kept going slow and at one point it looked difficult for them to even cross 200. Kane Williamson scored an unbeaten 38 of 41 in the final stages of the innings to take New Zealand to 221.
222 was definitely not a tough task for a team that batted as deep as South Africa. New Zealand, on the other hand, might have thought that it was their best chance to make a match of it by picking up some early wickets on the slow and sluggish Mirpur wicket where the bounce was never true. They got a lucky break as Hashim Amla got out early in one of the rarest fashions. Jack Kallis, the old horse, formed a couple of good partnerships with Smith and AB De Villiers. The South African ship was sailing smooth at 108-2 in 24 overs before Jacob Oram caught a blinder on the long on boundary to get rid of Jack Kallis. This marked the beginning of a play of fate that way going to lead South Africa to tears in the next couple of hours. Wickets fell as if there was an earthquake in Mirpur. Duminy was bowled by Nathan McCullum. AB was run out. Then came defeat chasing the last remaining and the only deserving participants from the African continent to confirm what was more of a South African loss than a Kiwi win.
South Africa remained at the bitter end of another tragic tale of a world cup qualifier, and, as I am forced to say - apart from 1992 when they had as valid an excuse as one will ever find - they should have only themselves to blame for acquiring this destructive trait commonly known as chocking.
Man of the Match: Jacob Oram
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