3rd Quarter Final: The Come-Back of a Wicked History

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

The Ill-fated

If after India there is any losing team I have felt really sorry for then it was South Africa in 1999, and the player I felt miserable for, as anybody could guess, was Lance Klusener. He was spectacular in that season. He seemed to have both the courage and the determination it takes to be a fighter of a cricketer. Klusener repeatedly outperformed himself by scoring 281 runs at an average of 140 and a strike-rate of 122, having been dismissed only twice in his 8 appearances with the cricket bat. He also claimed 17 wickets in the tournament, constantly turning games away from the opposition with his sparkling all-round performance. And for the record, he deservedly was the Man of the Tournament too. But he lost. He and Allan Donald - who, as we often forget, had picked up 4 wickets in that gem of a semi-final - together showcased the worst piece of running in the history of World Cup Cricket to tie the match and consequently exit the tournament. As he ran towards the non-striker end, Klusener's woe was beyond reach of any facial expression he could sport, and hence he kept walking towards the pavilion with an impassive face.

If Klusener was a survivor in '99 then Martin Crowe was an innovator and a great leader in '92. He led a bunch of decently talented Kiwis to an unexpected top slot in the league in a world cup where each team played the other. Martin Crowe's 100 not out in Auckland upset Australia by 8 wickets in the very first game of the tournament. Martin Crowe gave the new ball to the spinner in Deepak Patel to produce fascinating results at home. He also promoted Mark Greatbatch as a pinch-hitter to take advantage of the new rule of having just 2 fielders inside the circle in the first 15 overs. Martin Crowe had captained New Zealand to win 7 of the 8 matches they had played in the tournament, including the last loss against Pakistan before his side met Pakistan once more in the semi-final at Auckland. Martin Crowe's 91, well-supported by Ken Rutherford's 50, had almost taken New Zealand to their maiden World Cup final when Pakistan were 140-4, chasing New Zealand's 262. But Crowe's fancy dreams were destroyed by an unknown Pakistani youngster called Inzamam Ul-Haq, who scored a sensational 60 off 37 deliveries to see his team in the final of the cup that they were to win. Crowe was left with a staggering 496 runs in 9 matches, the pride of being arguably the best captain in the tournament (in close competition with the victorious Imran Khan), and with the Man of the Tournament award - which was given for the first time in a cricket world cup. His innovations were later used by many - both successfully and unsuccessfully - in their own ways, and Crowe later retired from one-day cricket in '95 leaving behind him a glorious memory of the best World Cup performance New Zealand have ever produced.

I know that nobody's - leave alone mine - words will suffice to describe what we had seen then. Yet, this is my small tribute to Lance Klusener, Martin Crowe, and all those ill-fated performers who could not take their team through to the ultimate glory, but stunned the world with their magical performances and forced themselves into the golden pages of the history of World Cup Cricket.