End of the World
25 Apr 2007
Australia shattered the Proteas’ World Cup dreams with a crushing seven-wicket victory in St Lucia.
This was a truly abysmal performance from a South African side that spoke a great game beforehand. Unfortunately, when it came time to actually deliver the goods on the field, they froze like a deer in the headlights.
The Proteas were guilty of overconfidence following their victory against England — a side ranked seventh in the world. All of a sudden they believed they could beat Australia (based on what?) and told anyone who cared to listen that they had a great shot. Like during their last tour Down Under, when Graeme Smith had so much to say, that bravado backfired badly.
When Smith won the toss on Wednesday and decided to bat first, he knew the pitch would offer the bowlers something early on. The captain must have regretted his decision the moment he was castled by Nathan Bracken for 2, playing an overly aggressive shot.
Having watched his captain throw his wicket away, key batsman Jacques Kallis went in similar fashion to Glenn McGrath for 5. AB de Villiers and Herschelle Gibbs played sensibly, before the opener, on 15, edged a Shaun Tait delivery to Adam Gilchrist.
It soon got a lot worse.
Ashwell Prince had a brain explosion when he chased a wide delivery from McGrath and edged it to the ‘keeper. Mark Boucher then nicked the first ball he faced to Matthew Hayden at first slip to leave the Proteas’ innings in tatters at 27-5.
Gibbs and Justin Kemp temporarily halted the carnage, adding 60 runs for the sixth wicket, before Tait had Gibbs (39) and Andrew Hall (3) caught behind. Shaun Pollock then gave Brad Hogg a simple return catch and the Proteas were 103-8.
Andre Nel, to his credit, managed to stick around for a lot longer than most of the established batsmen. However, the tailender stupidly chose to exchange words with Shane Watson, which is acceptable if your team’s on top, but only makes you look like an idiot when you’re in major trouble. In any event, Nel scratched his way to 8 off 41 balls, before lobbing an easy catch to Micheal Clarke off Tait.
Having made virtually no impact during the World Cup either with bat or ball, Kemp kept going at the other end. He was given a life on 48 when Tait dropped a sitter on the boundary, only to be prevented from reaching fifty when Watson bowled Charl Langeveldt to close the innings at 149.
South Africa needed early wickets to fight their way back into the game, and they struck early when Langeveldt bowled Gilchrist. Australia should have been 6-2 when Prince dropped Ponting, who raced to 22 before having his stumps rearranged by Nel.
A 66-run partnership between Hayden and Michael Clarke settled any nerves Australia may have had, before Hayden mistimed a drive off Pollock and was caught by Smith for 41.
Clarke (60*) and Andrew Symonds (18*) then finished the job with 111 balls remaining.
South Africa 149 (43.5 overs)
Justin Kemp 49*, Herschelle Gibbs 39, Shaun Tait 4-39, Glenn McGrath 3-18
Australia 153-3 (31.3 overs)
Michael Clarke 60*, Matthew Hayden 41, Shaun Pollock 1-16
Australia won by 7 wickets
For the full scorecard click here
1,112 Comments
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26 Apr 2007, 05:57 am
it not about drafting young players its finding the right balance of bringing new players with a mentorship program…….. protea’s should pick a coach first , then the captain not the other way round. ..bringing jet!!!!!! and let him bring neil mc kenzie!!!
26 Apr 2007, 06:10 am
I can’t see Sri Lanka knocking off Aus. The Aus momentum is just too great. Sri Lanka’s biggest hope is their chukka (Murali).
I think Aus will win the final comfortably.
26 Apr 2007, 06:22 am
Ian, that is the way it looks but beware old Slinga Malinga Vaas, they do damage when least expected…
26 Apr 2007, 06:24 am
Oh…’and Vaas’
26 Apr 2007, 06:44 am
SAussie it is indeed very good news about the Reds. If it came to a choice I would rather Horwill than Mcmenimem, I think the latter is just too injury prone to produce any kind of consistent excellence, but Horwill has the potential to be world class.
Re the cricket, Aus confidence is sky high and that will set them well if things get tight/start of wrong in the final. I look forward to reading the surge of joy from all you lovers of Australian cricket on this site should we win.
26 Apr 2007, 07:10 am
morning all.
this is the first 1000+ thread in months. look, the proteas were shocking. they tried to emulate the aussie gameplan from the round-robin match where the aussies targeted the new ball bowlers esp. shaun pollock. but this was a different type of pithc and a different occasion. it called for circumspection. the stage was too big to be charging the new ball. what it called for was for the batsmen to play themselves in as we saw with the innings from clarke, hayden and kemp.
the captain graeme smiff set a bad example. a really wild shot that started the rot. and as for jacques kallis, this is a low in his career. the media has “got” him. the incessant criticism has caused him to crack and play a game that he is not accustomed to. it all started in that match against australia earlier in the WC. since then all his dismissals and actual style of play have been out of character.
there are a few options. accelerate the exit of the over 30 club (pollock, kallis, boucher, gibbs), or hire a new coach amongst other options. smith is not a great leader. look at past WC winning captains-they were all tough ******** e.g imran khan, steve waugh, ranatunga, the WI guy (clive something). compared to these guys, grame smith is a schoolboy.
mickey arthur has hit his ceiling.
we need some out and out quicks and 15 years after re-admission we still haven’t produced a world-class spinner. and transformation has faltered as evidenced by the fact that makhaya ntini was the only black african member of the squad.
there’s plenty of work to be done. panicking won’t help.
the real problem is that a lot of the aussie greats are about to retire. so aus will be forced to field the next generation. the q. for us is who are the next generation of proteas. i bet the aussies have identified their new players. and we haven’t.
26 Apr 2007, 07:18 am
#1105 Clyde, glad to see you say should and not when…and of cause we will be around to spread the joy!
26 Apr 2007, 07:28 am
Well done aussies – you deserve it!
26 Apr 2007, 07:39 am
We have to enjoy the cricket Koos as I can’t really see us doing the same at the RWC. We’ll be lucky to get to the semi final on current form.
26 Apr 2007, 07:42 am
#1109,
same applies to the boks. on current form we should’nt make the semi’s. hopefully the rugby WC will be a catalyst of positive change and long-term planning for both the wallabies and the boks.
26 Apr 2007, 07:44 am
Morning folks – i need to kill this thread, it is placing to much strain on the system. Apologies
26 Apr 2007, 07:46 am
For the first time ever I will blame Smith! Has he not seen that allmost everytime he fails – the team fail! The shot he played when he lost his wicket was, given the circumstances, the worst shot I have ever seen played in a cricket match.
I think it is save to say that the Proteas are CHOKERS!
Also don’t see SL beat the Aussies in the final. The Aussies have being playing fantastic cricket and deserve to win the WC.
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