In a coincidence as bizarre as it was cruel, South Africa were eliminated from 2003 World Cup when their crucial Pool B match against Sri Lanka on Monday was deemed a tie after rain ended the match with five overs of the South African innings remaining.
In 1992 South Africa lost at the semi-final stage to England in a rain-affected game in Sydney. Seven years later at Edgbaston a tie against Australia, also at the semi-final stage, put South Africa out of the tournament. At Kingsmead on Monday, both elements came together as rain halted the South African innings at 229 for six after 45 overs in reply to Sri Lanka’s 268 for nine. According to the Duckworth-Lewis system, if the side batting second has reached 229 for five off 45 overs when play is
stopped, the match is tied.
As things stand before Kenya’s match against the West Indies on Tuesday, Sri Lanka, Kenya and New Zealand will go through to the Super Sixes, in that order unless Kenya beat the West Indies in which case the Kenyans will top the group.
One more run would have given South Africa victory, and the terrible irony is that two balls before the stoppage, Mark Boucher had hit Muttiah Muralitharan for six before blocking what was to be the last ball of the match. The South African dressing room was in possession of a sheet listing the various scores prescribed by Duckworth-Lewis, but mistakenly believed that 229 would give them victory and not a tie. When the error was recognised, twelfthman Nicky Boje was sent to give the batsmen the message, but he could not get out onto the field before the umpires took the players off the field.
If Boucher and his partner, Lance Klusener, had know that a further run was needed, they surely would have taken a single, no matter the circumstances and scraped into the Super Six stage. For Klusener, a central figure in the Edgbaston tie, history came back to haunt him in the most agonising fashion.
Then again, in both 1992 and 1996 South Africa had reached the semi-finals by playing fine, fighting cricket. In this tournament, however, the South Africans had already lost to the West Indies and New Zealand before arriving at Kingsmead knowing that nothing less than victory was needed to avoid elimination. It was a horrible way to go out of the World Cup, but the damage had been done in earlier matches.
Atapattu made a stylish 124 with De Silva’s contribution 73. Coming together at 90 for three, the pair snuffed out the possibility of a South African breakthrough and carried the innings through to its last five overs. They were out within two balls of each other, but by the time they were parted they had given Sri Lanka the breathing space the 1996 champions required.
There was a late flurry of wickets in the closing overs, and at the dinner break Sri Lanka may have wondered whether they’d done enough to win. In the event they had.
As has been the case throughout their tournament, the South African bowling lacked penetration. The home team went in without a spinner, opting for six right-arm seamers and preferring the novice Monde Zondeki to the veteran Allan Donald. Clearly, it was felt that more bite was needed in the attack, but Zondeki’s first two deliveries were crashed away to the boundary past point by Atapattu and after his six overs has cost 35, he succumbed to cramp and played no further part in the innings.
On a perfect batting pitch, Atapattu and De Silva were only occasionally disturbed by changes of pace, but even when they miscued, the ball inevitably fell into space. It was one of those sort of days for South Africa, but at the same time there was precious little in the way of innovation or original thinking. The South African tactics are so well known by now that opposing teams set their watches by them.
Which is not to detract from the batting of Atapattu or De Silva who played their hands perfectly. It was felt that at Kingsmead, the Sri Lankan weakness against the bouncing ball, but the tone of the innings was set in Shaun Pollock’s second over when Atapattu was able to get onto the front foot and drive the South African for three boundaries, once straight and twice through the covers.
Herschelle Gibbs and Graeme Smith made a promising start for South Africa, adding 65 in 11 overs for the first wicket. But when Sri Lanka introduced spin in the shape of De Silva, Smith slogged his ball down midwicket’s throat. De Silva, Sanath Jayasuriya and Muralitharan then picked up four more wickets, including that of Gibbs for 73, and a run out accounted for Pollock at 212 for six.
At that point Klusener joined Boucher. All to no avail.