South Africa teach the world to chase..

What a game it was ! It simply rained boundaries in Johannesburg on Sunday, and every bowler in that game must have felt despondent at some stage. Though I dont like batathons per se, I enjoyed this one a lot, particularly because of teams involved in this one.

Since their re-admission into international cricket, SA have been a decent team throughout, and have been a very good team at times (around the ‘99 World cup). Unfortunately, they lose their head at the sight of Australians. So, when Aussies levelled the series 2-2 after the fourth ODI (this, after trailing 0-2), I half expected SA to choke and lose the game.

The best example for that would be the mother-of-all-muck-ups by Klusener and Donald in the semi-finals of WC99. When Ponting smashed the bowlers to all parts of the park and took Oz to 434, my thoughts were “Boy, haven’t they scr3w3d up again ?

If they can avoid a record loss, it would be a good effort”. And i was extremely unhappy with Telemachus who, with his no-balls in the last few overs, conceded about 30 unnecessary runs. Aussies understandably were cocahoop, and they must have already concluded the result of the game. And who would have blamed them ?

If South Africa had abandoned the chase and just settled for a honourable loss, no one would have blamed them. But did they ? Hell no. Gibbs played out of his skin, Smith settled his dues with the Aussie bowlers, and set a platform for the late assault.

Gibbs’ innings must rank as the best ODI innings ever. He simply smashed the bowlers to all corners, and considering the reqd. run rate when he started batting, this is some feat. (Ponting’s task was slightly easier considering he was setting a target, not chasing one).

And then, Boucher played a superb knock, always in control, rotating the strike intelligently, and finishing the game off with a four off Lee.

SA had broken the psychological hold Aus had over them for years, and shed off the “chokers” tag.

As a South African fan, i was in tears after the WC99 semis. This one win has erased a lot of painful memories :).

There were plenty of posts in newsgroups saying semis-WC99 was the best ODI ever, and this one is not. Hogwash. People should try and imagine the pressure of

1) Chasing 400+ (no team had ever scored 400 before, and the highest successful chase till then was only 332)

2) The pressure of not mucking the chase up when they got close. Imagine the scenario if Ntini had gotten himself out, with just 2 required for a win.

IMHO, one of the best games ever, in spite of the tonnes of runs scored. And, SA get lots of brownie points. Next time Ponting will think twice (or more :P) before sledging a South African.

Compare this with the muck job by India in the chase in the 2003 World cup finals. A decent plan might have taken them close to the target, but what we got instead was slogging from the first over.

The title of this post was originally “South Africa teach the world to chase leather”. :). They won, and I had to rename the post :). Or probably, should have made the title “Record breakers “