The analysts will say that South Africa lost today's second semi final at the Beausejour stadium in St. Lucia inside the first 10 overs. After winning the toss, smiling and electing to bat, Graeme Smith could not have foreseen the carnage that was to follow as the South African top order were blown away to be reduced to 27/5 after 10 overs. The truth however, is that South Africa lost this match well before the match even started, as they apparently allowed verbal intimidation and the ghosts of their 1999 disasters against Australia to scramble their minds.
To understand what happened today to South Africa, one has to look back at the two encounters between South Africa and Australia in the 1999 World Cup. Back then, South Africa were the favourites to win the cup and had what was widely considered to be the best ODI team in the world. The two teams met twice in the 1999 edition.
During the first encounter, in the Super Six stage, South Africa batted first and posted a challenging 271/7. In reply, Australia were 152/3 in the 31st over when Steve Waugh presented a simple catch to the usually sure handed Herschelle Gibbs at mid wicket. Gibbs caught the ball, but in the act of throwing the ball in the air, he fumbled the ball to the ground, which negated the catch. A fielder has to have complete control of the ball up to the point of release for the catch to count. Waugh was on 55 at the time and he went on to make a match winning 120 off 110 balls as Australia won with 2 balls to spare. It was later said that Gibbs had "dropped the World Cup".
Fast forward four days later and South Africa and Australia were again locked in a tense duel, this time in the semi finals. Pursuing the Australian's total of 213, the South Africans were comfortably placed at 145/4 in the 41st over, but slipped to 196/7 at the start of the 49th over. Needing 18 from the last two overs, they collected 9 off the penultimate over, while Glenn MacGrath bowled Mark Boucher, and Steve Elworthy, the South African number 10 was run out. So South Africa entered the final over needing 9 to win with the big hitting Lance Klusener on strike and number 11 Allan Donald at the other end. Klusener hit the first two balls for four to draw the scores level. The third ball almost caused a run out as Donald backed up too far. On the fourth delivery, Klusener pushed the ball down to mid off and took off for the run. Donald, wary of being run out after nearly being so on the previous delivery, was caught flat footed as he watched the ball. By the time he realised what was happening and took off for the run, it was too late as the Aussies relayed the throw to the wicket keeper to run out Donald. The match ended in a tie, the first ever in World Cups, but more importantly it assured that Australia progressed since they had finished ahead of the Proteas in the Super Sixes. In fact, both team had finished level on 6 points, but Australia had the better run rate. (If the South Africans had won the Super Six match when Gibbs had the crucial dropped catch, then they would have advanced to the final). The heartbreak was palpable for the South Africans and the had earned the title of "chokers".
Fast forward eight years. Leading up to today's match the Australians made a point of reminding the South Africans of their previous collapses. Then came Ponting saying that he wanted Kallis in early to slow the run rate. Mind games are nothing new to Aussie cricket and they have perfected the art of unnerving their opponents by whatever means necessary. Today, it was obvious that South Africa's top order was no match for the mind games of the Aussies.
The first to go was captain Graeme Smith as he charged down the wicket to a Nathan Bracken delivery in the 3rd over and was bowled as he missed the ball completely. Jacques Kallis followed suit in the 6th over when he made room for himself to attack a full MacGrath delivery, only to succeed in yorking himself. With those two mindless, unnecessary shots, the South Africans had lost their two top batsmen in this tournament with the score on 12. de Villiers then fell to the raw pace of Shaun Tait, caught behind at 26/3 as he hung his bat out to dry. In the next over Ashwell Prince chased at a very wide MacGrath delivery only to give keeper Gilchrist a simple catch. The next delivery was classic MacGrath as Mark Boucher could only edge a ball pitched on the line of on off stump that moved away from him. The stunned South Africans had been reduced to 27/5 after ten overs and the match was effectively over. The only thing that could be said in Smith's, Kallis' and Prince's defence is that the South Africans had probably decided that they had to post a huge score against Australia and decided to come out all guns blazing. That however is no excuse for the crazy shots that were on display today.
The pace of Man-of-the-Match MacGrath (3/18), Tait (4/39) and Bracken (1/15) was too much for South Africa on this day, as the crawled to 149 all out in the 44th over. A first over wicket by Charl Langeveldt only gave the South Africans brief hope as Australia strolled home to 153/3 in 31.3 overs. They had comprehensively defeated the South Africans both on and off the field.
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