Stephen Fleming’s magnificent unbeaten 134, the Duckworth-Lewis method of recalculating targets in rain-affected matches and a woefully ineffective effort from South Africa’s bowlers all came together at the Wanderers on Sunday to keep New Zealand’s World Cup hopes alive and raise the very real prospect of the home team being eliminated in the first round of the tournament.
Two stoppages for rain during the afternoon reduced New Zealand’s victory target from 307 off 50 overs, after South Africa had made 306 for six, to 226 from 39 overs. When play was halted for the second time, the Kiwis had been 182 for one off 30.3 overs. In effect, this left New Zealand needing to score 44 to win off 51 balls.
With Fleming already on 104 and Nathan Astle on 37 when the final act of the game began, New Zealand had two senior batsmen well set at the crease. The revised target required them simply to knock the ball around without needing to take chances. As it happened they galloped to victory by nine wickets with 13 balls still remaining.
The Duckworth-Lewis may be an unsatisfactory way of deciding one-day matches, but it is now universally accepted and the decision by the World Cup organisers to do away with reserve days during the preliminary round came back to haunt the South Africans.
In truth, though, New Zealand had played themselves into a wonderful position to win the match over the full distance before the recalculation, so well had Fleming batted and so poorly had the South African attack functioned.
It is also true that Fleming was given a life on 53 when Mark Boucher missed a chance off Jacques Kallis in the 14th over. It was a costly miss which may, eventually, prove as costly as Herschelle Gibbs’ reprieve of Steve Waugh during the 1999 World Cup and, again, the South Africans can blame no one but themselves.
The victory was New Zealand’s first over South Africa in a one-day international in South Africa and it could not have come at a more opportune time for Fleming’s team. Earlier in the day the New Zealand board had announced that it intended to stand by its decision not to fulfill its fixture against Kenya in Nairobi, even though two-thirds of the New Zealand squad are believed to be winning to travel to Kenya.
Sunday’s match, then, was New Zealand’s last chance and they, and Fleming in particular, responded magnificently. The result probably pushes them into the Super Six stage of the tournament, provided they do not do something silly like losing to Bangladesh or Canada, but it leaves the South Africans perilously placed.
Having lost to the West Indies in the opening match at Newlands the previous Sunday, South Africa now have to win all their remaining fixtures including, crucially, the match against Sri Lanka in Durban on March 3. Even then, this might not be enough for South Africa who also need Sri Lanka to lose to the West Indies in Cape Town on February 28.
South Africa have put themselves in the position of leaving their fate in the hands of others.
At the lunch break, however, South Africa seemed well placed to inflict another defeat on New Zealand. Herschelle Gibbs, who started scratchily but blossomed the longer he batted, eventually fashioned a thrilling 143 which formed the basis of a challenging total.
Gibbs struggled in the early stages, particularly against Andre Adams, but gradually he found his timing and his eventual dismissal, after 195 minutes, 141 balls, 19 fours and three sixes, seemed to owe as much to exhaustion and cramp as to New Zealand skill.
He featured with partnerships of 60 with Graeme Smith, brought into the squad and the side after the injury to Jonty Rhodes, 66 with Nicky Boje, 67 with Jacques Kallis and 50 with Boucher as South Africa looked to built what would usually be a winning total.
But on an absolute belter of a pitch New Zealand took up the challenge with Fleming playing the leading role. The opening stand produced 89 before Craig McMillan was caught at the wicket off Allan Donald for 25. McMillan’s departure brought in Astle who offered his captain calm and assured support as he went through to finish on 54 not out. As well as South Africa batted they bowled equally as badly.
The senseless omission of Donald from the team that played Kenya in midweek came back to haunt the South Africans as Donald was again disastrously expensive, but he was by no means the only weak link in the attack. Too many of the South Africans bowled at Fleming’s pads, allowing the captain to feed off his strength, the spin option offered by Boje amounted to two overs for 16 runs and none of the six bowlers employed looked capable of bowling New Zealand out whether the match had been played over 39, 50 or even 100 overs.
This was not the script envisioned by the South Africans at the beginning of last weekend, but during the past eight days we have seen Australia completely justify their standing as tournament favourites while South Africa have slipped well off the pace. The World Cup dream now looks horribly like a nightmare.
More cricket in our Cricket World Cup special report