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Proteas squeak past Kenya

Like the view through a kaleidoscope, this game probably meant different things to different people.

For the Kenyans, it was an opportunity to continue doing something they have done with great panache throughout this tournament -- to wit, compete, and compete with great heart, against some of the big teams in a rarefied league they have only recently entered.

For the South Africans, it was a chance to go a long way towards nailing down that place in the final. Before this game, India had 4 points with one game to play, SA two with one to play, Zimbabwe two with one to play and Kenya was on the blank side of the ledger.

But the figures that matter relates to the net run rate: India before this game, +1.889, S'Africa, +0.694; and Zimbabwe was how the three contenders for the two final berths line up, and SA's job was to up that run rate, try and shade India enough to ensure that irrespective of the result of the last league game between India and Zimbabwe, it will go through to the final. In other words, SA needed a thumping win.

And for me, it was a yardstick for comparison, a chance to get yesterday's performance by the Indian batsmen and bowlers against the same opponents into some kind of framework. While doing the live commentary, I noticed fans in chat getting a touch irritated about India's run rate in the first 40 overs, and also wondering if the hold Nikhil Chopra and Sunil Joshi had exercised over South Africa the other day was a fluke.

So this game helps view yesterday's match in perspective -- the same Kenyans taking on South Africa, a side universally rated ahead of India.

Interestingly, conditions presented the perfect basis for comparison. Again, the pitch had been watered in the evening and was moist and seam friendly at the start of play; again, it was heavily overcast, further aiding seam and swing bowlers; again, Maurice Odumbe won the toss and opted to insert the opposition -- an action replay, thus far, of yesterday's game against the Indians.

The South Africans brought back Boeta Dipenaar for Herschelle Gibbs. You can't quarrel with that, really -- Gibbs has looked off colour here, while Dipenaar batted well against the Indian seamers until Joshi came along and spun his web of spin. However, the Proteas also chose to open with Hansie Cronje, and that frankly was surprising -- Cronje has right from the World Cup on down been struggling for touch, and even at his best, his best friends would rate him a better player of spin than seam. Predictably, the South African captain left early, pushing away from his body at a ball seaming outside off, to touch it through to Kennedy Otieno (whose athleticism behind the sticks, by the way, is very impressive).

South Africa sent in Klusener at one drop, and this was the real test. To their credit, the Kenyan bowlers and fielders passed it with panache -- Odumbe appeared to have worked out that Klusener, like Jayasuriya, is at his best when there is width outside off or when the length is full and he can hit through the line. So the Kenyan captain first blocked Klusener's most productive areas -- long off, wide long on, deep midwicket. And then he had his seamers go round the wicket and angle in to the left hander (a ploy being used regularly now against Sanath Jayasuriya) or stay over the wicket and bowl a three quarter length, not allowing the batsman the luxury of hitting on the up or playing the horizontal bat shots off the back foot. And the fielding remained electric -- to such an extent that the frustration mounted for the batsmen. Both Dipenaar and Klusener found their best shots fetching them just singles, and attempts to push the ball around and sneak quick runs was countered with some fleet-footed work by the close-in ring.

The result? Check out the rate of progression till say the 30th over: 23/1 in 5; 40/1 in 10; 51/1 in 15, 56/3 in 20, 81/3 in 25; 91/4 in 30.

Obviously, even with Klusener ready and willing to go for broke, the runs weren't coming even during the field restriction phase of the innings (just 11, for instance, between overs 10-15). But more interestingly, contrast this with India's progression during the same phase yesterday: 6/0 in 5; 17/0 in 10; 42/1 in 15; 52/1 om 20; 71/1 in 25; 97/1 in 30.

Obviously, India's start was considerably slower -- but by the 15 over stage, they had started to play the game better than the South Africans managed, today. And at the 30 over mark, India was ahead not just in runs, but even in wickets -- a tribute to the way Ramesh and Dravid held the innings together against this same bowling and fielding outfit, in identical conditions.

Frustration forced Klusener into the slog, attempting to hoik a slower one from Tony Suji over long on, playing too early and giving Thomas Odoyo, who took a superbly judged catch yesterday to get rid of Ganguly, the opportunity to further demonstrate his catching prowess, this time at long on. Klusener had made just 22 off 42 deliveries after coming out to accelerate the scoring -- the best possible tribute to the discipline of the Kenyans in the field and with the ball, and an indication if the Indians were watching that 'Zulu' isn't superman in SA colours.

Ochieng, who made his debut here for Kenya with the ball, turned out to be a very reliable medium pacer with a smooth, flowing action and the ability to find length and line early and hold it for keeps. Dipenaar was the next to go, in a fashion similar to Klusener and for the same reason -- hitting too early as he tries to whack a slower ball from Ochieng out of the ground, managing only to find midwicket with a simple catch. Yesterday, we made a point about the number of caught and bowleds occasioned by the habit of this pitch to make the odd ball stop on the batsman -- that same factor has been producing these shots played too early, and it is going to be an increasing factor as this tournament gets into its final stages.

Between overs 10-20, South Africa managed all of 16 runs, for the loss of two wickets, an indication of how well the Kenyans played this part of the game. The pressure was mounting all the time, and Benkenstein was the next to succumb to pressure. The Proteas would have, on the basis of his performance thus far, identified Mohammad Sheikh as the weak link in the attack, but here he bowled much better than in previous game, held a good line and Benkenstein, repeatedly trying to hit him out of the attack, finally overhit one and managed to bat it straight to mid on, SA 83/4 in 26.1.

That same over almost nailed SA to the mast, when Sheikh got one to jump and turn, Jonty Rhodes going on the back foot and pushing at it without a clue what the ball was doing, the ball going in the air and the fielder at widish point just failing to get his fingertips under the chance.

Rhodes, who believes in the dictum of attack as the best form of defense, then took the game to the Kenyans with some fancy hitting, taking sixes in successive overs of Sheikh by way of rubbing it in. Interestingly, Rhodes looks more troubled by the deliveries turning into him (vide Maurice Odumbe) than by the left arm spin of Mohammad Sheikh, so it might be interesting for the Indians to attack him with Chopra and Bharadwaj, come the time (though for the record, Joshi got him last time out when the batsman played an ill-advised reverse sweep).

The Rhodes blitz worked for SA, Kallis dropping anchor at the other end and letting his partner do the bullk of the work. Rhodes responded superbly and SA took 41 in the five overs between 30-35.

However, Rhodes fell trying that one big hit too many, failing to get under a ball from Martin Suji that he was looking to lift over the boundary but managing only to find long on. 45/46 represented a superb counter-attack, and SA were 157/5 as Rhodes walked off.

Kallis took on himself the onus of picking up the scoring -- but failed to do as well as Rhodes, thumping one hard to cover to take SA into the slog overs at 162/6. Again, contrast this with India's position at this point yesterday -- 136/4, the extra wickets allowing them to mount that 84-ball assault in the final ten overs.

Shaun Pollock played an exciting cameo, but the Kenyans held their nerve and ensured that SA managed just 58 in the last ten. To finish up on 220/7 -- precisely the score India had managed the previous day.

The comparisons continued, inevitably, when Kenya began its chase. Shaun Pollock bowled a mean spell (7-3-6-1) at the start, and took out Ravindu Shah with one that seamed away outside off, the batsman touching it through.

Kenya were 15/0 in 5, 25/1 in 10 (42/4 against India at this point yesterday, and effectively out of the game). Jacques Kallis then took out Kennedy Otieno, beating the batsman with pace off the deck and just that bit of movement to go through the defence and trap the batsman in front. (37/2 in 15, as against 49/4 in the previous game).

Maurice Odumbe for once showed none of his trademark confidence, and after a tortured stay of 20 deliveries, made the fatal error of going back to a ball of very full length from Klusener, the ball keeping low to sneak under the bat and trapping him plumb in front.

Alpesh Vadher then touched Klusener from outside off for Boucher to dive and hold a superb one way to his right, and Hitesh Modi swept Adams without getting his foot into line, getting the top edge for Cronje to hold well at short backward square. Kenya's progression (the similar progression against India in brackets) read: 51/2 in 20 (59/4); 72/3 in 25 (69/5); 92/4 in 30 (77/6); 115/5 in 35 (86/6); 143/5 in 40 (107/6).

Obviously, the Kenyans were handling the seam attack of the Proteas far better than they had done the spin trio of India the previous day. And Steve Tikolo, who had been batting with flair and flamboyance right through, began turning it on in the slog phase, producing a lovely display of counter-attacking cricket to almost sneak the game out of South Africa's hands. Crookes had been dropped for this game, as being ineffective -- on the evidence today, Adams, who has recently had a long stint under Shane Warne's coach Terry Jenner, didn't do much better either.

Tikolo's dismissal owed entirely to umpiring error, and that at a point when he seemed to be hauling his side past the winning post. Cronje, bowling off spin (his rotation of bowlers left a bit to be desired today, it was surprising that he waited an over longer than he had to, to introduce Pollock, and Kallis too ended bowling one over short of his quota, errors that almost cost SA dear), fired one on middle turning to outside leg, Tikolo went on his knee to swing it around, got an inner edge, and the ball hit the outside of his front pad. Not out on two counts -- for one thing, the touch was palpable and for another, the ball in any case was missing leg stump. The umpire, though, gave the LBW decision, and Tikolo's superb innings of 67/87 ended in an unfortunate fashion, SA at that point 156/6 in 42.1.

Significant figures, those -- 65 off 47 balls the ask at that point, doable in the slog phase and especially with Tikolo batting the way he was.

Martin Suji didn't manage to prolong the resistance, pushing Adams to cover in the 44th. But Thomas Odoyo stepped in to produce a fighting innings, hitting hard and often, to score 41/50 deliveries and take Kenya to 195/7 in the 47th over (just 26 short at that point) before he came down the track to Pollock looking to hit over extra cover, and managed only to get a thick edge through to the keeper.

The tail promptly folded and SA went out winners by 24 runs. Pollock and to a lesser extent Kallis impressed with the ball, but the startling statistic in the SA bowling performance was the extras -- far too many wides from a team known for its discipline.

Tikolo received some consolation when he pipped Pollock to the Man of the Match award. And for Kenya, there was the satisfaction of knowing that though their record here read played three, won three, they did not disgrace themselves. In fact, if you judge by the scores of schoolkids who came to the ground today and backed the home team voiciferously, cricket in Kenya should get a nice boost from this display.

And finally, the bottomline -- India's run rate obviously remains on 1.89. South Africa didn't do as well as they would have liked to, managing merely to take their run rate to 0.23, as compared to 0.71 for Zimbabwe.

Now then -- would it be wrong for India to tank a game, and let Zimbabwe win, thus putting SA out of contention for that final berth? If the margin of victory is not too big, India will still go through on the basis of its run rate.

During the World Cup, when Australia and West Indies went through a charade to try and dump New Zealand from the Super Six and I wrote a report protesting such unfair tactics, fans had come down on me like a ton of bricks. The argument cited was the one Steve Waugh himself trotted out: that you are in a tournament to win it, and you can do whatever it takes as long as it is within the rules.

Fair enough, then. Would it be right here for India to go with the times? If it did, and tanked the match, what would South Africa's reaction be?

Scoreboard