An even contest between bat and ball is a rarity now a days . Rewinding my tape eleven years back , I still remember the 1999 cricket world cup with fondness. Cometh the hour , came the man , only to be let down by poor running.
South Africa won the toss and sent Australia in . Mark Waugh was back for an early shower . Ponting fought for some time and was sent back soon. Lehmann followed the suit. It took a spirited Michael Bevan and Steve Waugh to forge a partnership to save Australia from capitulation. Adding 90 runs for the fifth wicket , Michael Bevan played an innings of caution. Pollock bowled his heart out, finishing with 5 wickets and Donald caused havoc claiming 4 wickets. Australia ended their struggle with 213 runs and the South Africans went in with their tails up.
The South African run chase started well , Gibbs and Kirsten put on 48 runs for the first wicket before Gibbs fell to Warne and from then on , it was a Shane Warne show. Kirsten followed Gibbs soon and the much celebrated South African batting lineup was exposed by some quality spin bowling. Hansie Cronje was unfortunate to be sent back for a duck. The ball spun heavily and looked to have clipped his boot , and the umpire raised his dreaded index finger after much appealing by Warne. South Africa were reduced to 53/3. A superb partnership between Kallis and Rhodes steadied the sinking ship as South Africa fought on to reach 150 by the 40th over. It was a classic battle between bat and ball, and as South Africa lost two quick wickets in succession and were looking down the barrel. Enter Lance Klusener , the big hitting southpaw . He led the resilience as Pollock hung on at the other end and the match inched towards a close finish . Pollock fell to Fleming and the tail was in.
Australians smelt blood ,but Klusener kept them at bay. With boundaries at important junctures, he made the wickets falling look incidental. Elworthy ran himself out in the 48th over , right after Boucher was castled by a Mcgrath yorker.16 runs was needed from 10 balls and Australians had the upper hand. Klusener smashed Mcgrath for a six and with 9 runs off the last over and Klusener on strike, it seemed gettable. Klusener unleashed two mighty blows that sent the ball to the fence and with 1 run to get from 4 balls, it was just a matter of time. The game looked like a Martin Scorcese thriller right from the beginning and with so many dramatic twists and turns it turned into Oscar material. Klusener spared the third ball.He pulled the fourth one down the wicket and took off when Alan Donald suddenly developed legs of cement and refused to budge . It was a mid-pitch disaster as Gilchrist removed the bails to send an emotional klusener and South Africa back home. The game ended as a tie and Australia went in due to superior net run rate.
South Africa will forever remember this day , and the world cup . Klusener waged a lone battle and was destined to take his rightful place in the South African cricket folklore until disaster struck. Australians displayed their tenacity as always , as the proteas earned the ‘chokers’ tag.
Tag Archive: australia
Historical accounts associate battles with weird names. The Boar war, The war of Roses are incongruous enough, but nowhere close to ‘Ashes’ , which gets its name from a satirical obituary published in an English daily after a routine bashing handed out to England by Australia. The trophy may not be even half as glamorous as the IPL ‘s diamond studded one, but the prestige associated with the Ashes ‘urn’ is something which the multi millions can never buy. Nature has its way of putting people in place and the English, who often pride themselves on being the founders of cricket , have hardly been a force to reckon with in the modern era. England started off in a thumping fashion defeating Australia 8 consecutive times to conquer the Ashes in the 1880’s. The fight for supremacy heightened every subsequent tournament , and honours were more or less even, till the late 1980’s.Since 1989 , the Ashes had been more of a funeral for England, with Australia moving from strength to strength and traumatizing England consecutively for 16 years. Alan Border, Mark Taylor, Steve Waugh captained the indomitable, all conquering Aussies during the tenure which saw them reach the pinnacle of their form. The key to Australia’s success had been their stability, which is underlined by the usage of only two wicket keeping batsmen, ‘Gilly’ and ‘Healey’. If the Waugh’s and Warne weren’t’ enough the Aussie team boasted of the likes of Hayden , Langer, Martyn and the ever dependable Glen Mcgrath.
The 2004-2005 season saw England clambering up the ICC charts and 2005 signaled England’s arrival in the modern day of cricket. In a gripping series, which saw Australia wallop England in the first test and England forging a remarkable comeback , the Ashes went back to where it started. The world woke up from its slumber and England was finally given some recognition they were due. The next year , saw normal services being restored with Australia completing a humiliating white wash to compound England’s’ off field woes. Their progress has been slow since then, in a path that was littered with politics, failures and retirements. But with the dawn of 2009, English cricket had a new lease of life. The 2009-2010 Ashes were recovered by the English men, defeating Australia 2-1, and 2010 saw them lift the ICC T20 trophy.
The Ashes over the years has given birth to many memorable moments. Shane Warne’s ball of the century to Mike Gatting, Steve and Mark’s depredation of the English attack, Kevin Pietersen’s dismantling of Brett Lee, Ian Botham’s menacing batting and more recently Monty Panesar and James Anderson surviving 11 overs of Australian onslaught. Michael Vaughan may not have been a legendary English batsman, but he is part of the English folklore for regaining the lost Ashes. Even the generally woeful Mark Ramprakash rose to the occasion often, scoring 933 runs at 42.40. A luminous enhancement compared to his 27.32 on non-Ashes days.
The 2010-11 Ashes has already started receiving its customary hype from the media. Whatever maybe the outcome, cricket’s oldest rivalry shall continue to entertain us.
As published on cricketpulse.com at at http://www.cricketpulse.com/Blogger/View.asp?ArticleId=604&CatId=1
They are actually fighting for this!
