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It's the Proteas, at the finish

Hansie Cronje said it best, a day before the final. "We don't depend on one star," the South African captain pointed out when asked about his team's chances in the final. "We all do our bit, back each other up, we play as a team."

Check it out. No Gary Kirsten, so Darryl Cullinan steps into the opener's slot in this tournament and causes problems to rival bowlers with some clean hitting at the top of the order. Every single batsman down the card, barring -- in this instance -- Rhodes and Boucher -- contribute to the effort. No Donald, or Pollock, or even Klusener -- so Pat Symcox bowls incredibly tight spells at the start of the innings, Kallis returns 5-fer spells. And if you figure Jonty Rhodes is the fielding superstar, you''ve got to watch Derek Crookes (Herschelle Gibbs too, but he ain't here either) in action, that lad doesn't take seconds even to a Jonty.

It's a lesson the Indians would do well to learn, one would think -- rather than collapse in self-induced panic the minute Sachin Tendulkar fails, the others could see in that failure an opportunity to shine (remember Ranatunga, earlier in this tournament, saying "When the stars fail, I get a chance"?). And once they start doing that, I would bet, even Sachin's performance will improve, because he is no longer under the pressure of knowing he has to do almost all of it on his own.

But that is by way of aside -- back to the game of the day. There was a full house at the Bangabandhu National Stadium in Dhaka for the Wills Cup final between South Africa and the West Indies -- and a good thing, too. It's nice to know that at least in some parts of the sub-continent, 'cricket' doesn't equate with either India or Pakistan or Sri Lanka. A lot of cricket following, these days, has become country-centric and somewhere within all that hysterical support, I would think, such fans are missing out on a lot of good cricket being played by other sides.

The conditions matched the occasion -- nice and sunshiny, with a flat batting track (the same as the one used for the first match of the tournament, nicely watered and rolled) and a lush, fast outfield. And, what's best, nary a rain cloud in sight. Hansie Cronje, who went in with an unchanged outfit, had no hesitation in opting to field first on winning the toss. His rationale would be that batting second would be as easy as batting first, with the added advantage of being able to go in knowing exactly what you have to do.

Windies made one change, bringing Clayton Lambert back to partner Philo Wallace -- a pairing that had been the despair of England the last time the Caribbeans were seen in one day action. Rather a smile-inducing switch, that -- if Stuart Williams never moves his feet, not so you notice, then Lambert is the other extreme -- he stands well away from leg and then, just as the bowler delivers, takes one huge stride that would have him stepping on silly point's toes if a fielder were placed there.

The South Africans are great believers in doing their homework, preparing for each occasion, with their native brains backed by Bob Woolmer's laptop. And just how important homework is, was proven in the very first over when Cronje tossed the ball to Pat Symcox -- a trump that took the trick from the powerful, big-hitting Windies opener.

Symcox is all of 40, but if he has slowed down with age, you'd be hard put to point to it. What he has done, with age, is mature, and acquire enormous experience and the same amount of expertise. Bowling his 10 overs flat out, he returned figures of 0/29 -- which wouldn't have disgraced a Saqlain Mushtaq, or a Harbajan Singh, one bit. There is an interesting facet to his bowling that often goes unnoticed because we are busy watching the batsmen, and that is his use of the crease. Good offspinners use the width brilliantly to change the angle of delivery. But the very best practitioners -- Prasanna's name comes to mind here; no, sorry, not that of Fred Titmus -- also use the length, and Symcox has picked up that trick. Sometimes he uses the full length of the crease, at others he shortens it and bowls from a step or two inside, on some occasions his front foot is in line with the stumps at the bowling end -- what he is doing here is changing the length.

It all proved too much for Wallace, who was forced to defend for a good bit of the time, against the offie. At the other end, Lambert launched a huge six over long on, but never looked like staying out there too long, his exaggerated movement causing all kinds of problems combating the moving ball. Meanwhile, there was a bit of backchat between Steve Elworthy and Philo Wallace and the big batsman, clearly irritated, tried to launch Elworthy over long off. The ball flared off the edge, high and looping down to third man, and Jonty Rhodes -- never one to miss an opportunity for the spectacular -- went haring off after it from a very square point, calling for the catch. No other fielder from that position would have even bothered chasing a ball to third man, but Jonty actually got there and got a hand to it before it popped out. Trouble was, Jacques Kallis, fielding at third man, could have taken it with considerable ease, had it not been for Jonty's dramatics -- and that was to prove a very costly lapse.

Elworthy meanwhile got rid of Lambert, kicking one into him at top pace, the batsman went for the pull but the ball hurried into him faster than anticipated and Symcox had it easy at midwicket.

Between the Chanderpaul of yesterday and today, there was a world of difference. The reason being that neither Symcox, nor Nicky Boje who took over from Elworthy, gave him room to come down the track, like he did yesterday to the Indian bowlers. The more crucial factor was the fielding -- time and again, Chanderpaul was turning down singles that looked easier than the kind he was taking yesterday with contemptuous ease, simply because the South African fielders moved towards the ball so quickly, they hustled him into keeping his ground. 27/54 was what Chanderpaul finally made before sheer desperation to up the scoring forced the mistake -- and those figures remind you, don't they, of Rahul Dravid yesterday? Goes to show that if you bowl well and field well, you can tie down most batsmen -- this is something that the Indians face very often, but opposing sides, when playing India, face seldom if ever.

Brian Lara, yesterday, impressed with the application he showed, refusing to be hustled, not going after the bowling but staying calm, keeping his cool and guiding his team home. Today, he was in completely different mode -- and Cronje helped the good work along by doing precisely what he needed to, against the West Indies captain. He kept the field up, had his long on very fine, left the big gap between that fielder and midwicket -- a favourite Lara area -- and didn't lose his nerve even when the Windies skipper went down the track and picked that spot out for a lovely six. Crookes was bowling middle and leg, Lara, who moves far too much across to off anyway, again went for that shot, missed completely and was bowled by the straight one, behind his pads.

All this time, Philo Wallace was impressing one and all, as much by the immense power in his strokes (on one occasion, a top edge of an attempted sweep actually soared for six) as by his application. A batsman of his murderous bent of mind could be forgiven for some frustration as West Indies, by their standards here thus far, actually crawled to 18/0 in 5, 49/1 in 10 and 69/1 in 15 -- but Wallace hung in there, riding out dot ball after dot ball and when he got the chance (which came with Symcox first, then Boje, going out of the attack) he turned it on in an incredible display of big hitting. At one point he had a strike rate of around 76 -- but when he got to his 100, he was going at over 100%, as dramatic an example of the value of keeping your cool as any you will find.

He was finally dismissed to a superb piece of stumping, when Cronje drifted one wide down leg and Boucher, with a very difficult take to manage, had the bails off in a flash.

Arthurton has this problem, that he tends to stick his pads down the track and then play around and across it. Kallis -- held back by Cronje till past the 35th over in another impressive display of thoughtful captaincy -- must have felt aggrieved when Steve Dunne showed complete disinterest in what looked as plumb a case of LBW as you will want to see, but later in the same over, he just kept the ball on the straight line again and Arthurton obliged, presenting his pads and leaving Dunne no option but to send him packing.

Hooper, who all along looked very calm and in control, was rapidly running out of support at the other end, and thus forced to play increasingly risky shots. Like the drive he aimed at Kallis, who was getting a lot of swing and seam movement, which took the edge for Jonty, making amends for the earlier lapse, to hold very well at point.

At 153/3 in the 30th over, the West Indies should have been looking at 280-300 -- one of cricket's hoariest cliches being the advice to the batting side to "get to 30, keep your wickets, then double it".

As it happened, though, the brittleness of the tail proved their undoing, as the Caribbeans slumped to 245 all out, off the very last over, and left the South Africans looking at a relatively easy chase. For the Proteans, Symcox with his spell at the top, and Kallis with his 5/30 at the end, were the standout performers, the likes of Nicky Boje and Hansie Cronje supporting them to the hilt. And the fielding, barring that one lapse by Jonty, was as usual way above par, not wilting a bit even when facing Wallace at his most berserk.

I thought Lara could have taken a leaf out of Cronje's book, and sprung a surprise on Darryl Cullinan by opening with Rawl Lewis. As Shane Warne will tell you, Cullinan's favourite nightmare is facing a leg spinner, and Lewis in fact bowls very well to the right handers. But the West Indies captain opted for his regular opening bowlers and the Proteas, aided by some rather inept fielding, went off to a nice start, getting to 59/1 in just 10 overs. That solitary wicket was Cullinan's -- brilliantly run out by the fleet-footed Arthurton just when he was beginning to turn it on.

Cronje again sent in Mark Boucher to pinch hit, but again, the ploy failed, with Boucher walking back after giving his opposite number a simple stumping to pull off.

Kallis, the man of the moment, and Mark Rindell -- rather edgy, but still hitting for all he was worth -- kept powering ahead, though, and South Africa were looking nice and easy at 85/2 in 15, 112/2 in 20. Then again, maybe at that stage it looked too simple -- witness Kallis' complete loss of concentration as he pushed Simmons straight back to the bowler, a soft dismissal off a ball that begged to be despatched to any part of the boundary on the leg side the batsman fancied.

And suddenly, for no reason anyone could see, the game turned on its head. Rindell, just one short of what would have been a utilitarian, if not a classy, half century took off for a run that was never there and Arthurton -- easily the best of the West Indies fielders -- flew over the turf at point to pick up and throw down the stumps with Rindell, running from the non--striker's end, hopelessly stranded. And almost immediately thereafter, Jonty Rhodes cut too close to his body to give Ridley Jacobs a simple catch and open the game right up again.

Around this point, with South Africa reaching 154/5 in 30, an oft-made assessment about the South Africans cropped up again -- they tend to play brilliantly throughout a tournament, only to lose it in the final. And Lara helped the good work along by bringing on Rawl Lewis -- bowling round the wicket, into the rough made by the bowler's footmarks at the other end and turning the ball a long way in -- into the attack, with the experience of Cronje counter-balanced by the inexperience of Benkenstein.

Experience is a wonderful thing, really -- just when his inexperienced colleague was coming under some pressure, Cronje relieved it by taking advantage of a flaw in Lewis' bowling armoury. While he does turn the ball a long way, the trouble with Lewis is he is a bit of a one trick pony -- the only ball he bowls is the leg break, so once you figure out the line he is operating on, he becomes predictable, as Cronje underlined with a reverse-swept four that looked as good as the real thing (just to prove that it was no fluke, he repeated it a shade later), just as Bangladesh premier Sheikh Hasina made her entry into the ground. Benkenstein promptly played a lovely on drive, off the next over, off Reon King and suddenly looked a happier man out there in the middle. At the end of 35 overs, the pair had taken South Africa along to 181/5, needing just 66 off 91 from there on.

This was the point where the real key to the game was seen -- at the 35 over mark, the West Indians had made 183/4 -- two runs more, and one wicket less, than the Proteans. From there, they just managed a measly 62 off the next 15, losing six wickets in the process, and gave the game away right there. A bigger total, which was easily on the cards thanks to Philo Wallace, would have ended this one as a contest, but with South Africa batting very deep, in fact right down the line to numbers ten and eleven, it was Lara with the worries at this point.

South Africa rounded nicely into the turn at 205/5 in 40, and another Cronje reverse sweep brought up his half century off just 62 balls -- in a tournament that started off with captains on centrestage, it was perhaps appropriate that a captain ended it with a match-winning performance off his own bat. And from that point, the game could go only one way, because this was the period in which the West Indies crumbled completely.

Benkentstein fell in the 42nd over, a fierce pull at a Dillon delivery not short enough for the stroke giving Carl Hooper at midwicket another chance to show what lovely, soft hands he has when fielding. That brought Crookes (whose footspeed between wickets reminds you of Dean Jones) to the middle, with Symcox still in the hut -- so even the departure of batsman number six doesn't mean much, in terms of pressure on the South Africans at that point. And the bigger plus was that they still had Cronje out there -- no superstar this man, but once he gets in there, he doesn't believe in giving up until he's seen the side home, which must be a reassuring thought to the guys back in the dressing room.

At the 45 over mark, the South Africans needed only 20 more off 30 balls which, with four batsmen back in the hut, was all too do-able. Crookes in fact did the needful in the 47th, with first a reverse sweep off Lewis (Crookes, sitting in the pavilion, must have been watching his captain quite intently), then a regular one, then a chip over cover for two, to put the issue completely beyond doubt. And finished it off with a huge pull over square leg for four off the last ball, to take the Proteans home with 3 overs, and four wickets, to spare.

Lara did try -- as much as he could on a day when, barring Arthurton and to an extent Hooper, the rest of his fielders turned in a performance card that, like the curate's egg, was good only in very brief parts. The bowlers didn't err noticeably, but the recurring misfields meant that the batsmen were never really under sustained pressure.

One instance suffices to underline the point -- in the 46th over, Dillon bowling, the intent should have been to keep down the singles. So Cronje gets tucked up by ball two, it lands at his feet, Crookes races through and Dillon, never in the same frame as Crookes chasing down the wicket, kicks the ball onto the stumps, misses by a country mile, and gives away an overthrow -- and the funny thing was, when Dillon kicked the ball, Crookes was not only in his crease, but even past the stumps.

Contrast that with a little cameo we saw in an earlier game, when South Africa took on Sri Lanka. The islanders were chasing, and had lost 7 wickets. The game, as a contest, was over. And suddenly, the high camera (one of 18 that has brought some superb visuals, and helped viewers see the game close enough to understand and analyse the finer points) came into play. The Lankan batsman had pushed towards point, and the aerial view showed five fielders converging onto the ball, coming from all directions. That is the kind of fielding that keeps batsmen rooted in their crease, that is what the West Indies needed, and didn't get, here.

A deserved win by the one team that, throughout the tournament, played as a team despite missing four of their biggest stars. A win masterminded by a thinking, determined captain who enjoys the backing of every single member of his squad.

And at the very end, it makes you wonder -- if India had a team in the South African sense of the word, imagine what that team, spearheaded by a Sachin Tendulkar, could achieve!

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