SA keeps its nerve, and takes the trophy in dramatic final

Prem Panicker

There is, inevitably, going to be questions asked, and comments made, about the rain that came down again to again affect the final of the SBI ODI series between India and South Africa.

When SA finished its innings, India was left chasing a monumental 278 off 50 overs. When rain knocked 10 overs off the total to be played by India, the ask was reduced by a mere 27, and India was left to make 251 to win in 40.

But this point needs to be made - wickets, playing conditions, rain interruptions and other acts of god are all part of the game, and such discussions on the "if only" lines are mere waste of breath. India had an impossible task, made a great bid for glory and lost in a thriller - and there ends the story, really.

And full credit to South Africa. With the reputation of being poor big match players and of choking in the big ones, this team not only won, but won in a fashion that proved that its nerve is not as suspect as was thought. India, remember, was 194/3 in 30 overs, needing just 57 off 60 balls with seven wickets in hand. To come back from there and bowl the team out, thanks to some thoughtful bowling and magnificient catching, took immense courage - and SA on the day had it, in spades.

Here's how it all happened...

The pitch, and teams

Let's take the teams first. South Africa left out Pat Symcox and brought in fast bowler Rudi Bryson. And India left out Sunil Joshi and brought in Salil Ankola. India also left out Nayan Mongia, a disciplinary measure in light of his shocking running out of Mohammad Azharuddin in the rain-ruined game the previous day, but it is the inclusion of Ankola and Bryson that was most interesting.

Interesting, because it demonstrates half-smart thinking. Yesterday, when this final was first played, the seam bowlers had a ball. There was pace, there was bounce, there was swing.

Ergo, the team managements decided that today would be ditto. Why, though? This was technically the third innings being played on the same wicket, it had to get slower in that time, and when you add to it the fact that the rain would have dampened it a shade and added softness to the footmarks, it was apparent that the slower bowlers would be the ones who would hold the key.

In the event, so it proved - Ankola went for 51 off his 7, and Bryson for 47 off his 7 after going for 20 off his first two. And what amazes me, again, is how teams and managements with such experience sometimes fail to see something that is as plain as the warpaint on Allan Donald's face. Oh well...

The South African innings

I know that historically, 201 has been the highest a team has made at Kingsmead, Durban, batting second to win a match - but it really didn't matter who batted first here, this was a beauty of a batting track. No matter how fast you bowled, the ball actually checked itself and then came on at a friendlier speed. And if you pitched short, horrors, it sat up there, begging the hit to any part of the ground you cared to choose.

So Hansie Cronje, lucky with the toss for once, batted first only because the SA bowling and fielding are its real strengths, and it is always an idea to play to your strong points.

Hudson and Kirsten came out to open, and though Hudson hit one powerful pull and got a couple of streaky fours as well, he never did look comfortable against Srinath, who had tormented him in the abandoned game the previous day, and ended up feathering the bowler to Saba Karim behind the stumps. Hudson 19/33 with 3 fours and SA 43/1.

That brought the hugely talented Jacques Kallis to the wicket and with Gary Kirsten, after a few waves at deliveries outside off that he should have known not to flirt with, settling into a steady style of batsmanship, the runrate took off. From 15/0 in 5 overs and 35/0 in 10, SA went to 74/1 in 15 as bowler after bowler disappeared to the farthest corners of what was admittedly a smallish sort of ground.

The more you see of Kallis, the more you are impressed, really. Ice cool, sound on the basics, a superb striker of the ball all round the wicket and, as is usual with the well-drilled SA outfit, adept at working the singles and ensuring that the scorers never went off to sleep on the job. Kirsten, meanwhile, in characteristic fashion settled down after some rather lucky lofted strokes in the early part of his innings (not to mention a caught behind off a no ball) into playing steady, sensible cricket, and when 20 overs were completed, SA was on a comfortable 103/1.

The trouble on a wicket like this is, where the heck do you bowl? If it is outside off, then the batsman waits for it and either guides through the covers or works it behind point for runs. Bowl on middle and you go anywhere in the arc between mid off and square leg. Bowl a leg stump line and the batsman says thanks loads and helps himself to a free hit. And no matter how good a bowler you are, there is no way you are going to be able to bowl that precise three quarter length, on off stump, ball after ball without deviating a fraction. The Indian bowlers were certainly not up to it, and the SA batsmen, once they judged the conditions, proceeded clinically to take the bowlers to the cleaners.

Kirsten's (51 off 69 with five fours) wicket, falling at 129 when he hoiked Robin Singh to Dravid on the square leg fence, was a case of adrenalin overdose. With runs coming freely, the batsman probably reckoned on getting into overdrive, deviated from his policy thus far of easy strokeplay, and went for a big one which wasn't on.

Out came Darryl Cullinan. His class as a batsman can be stated in one word - brilliant. His failing can also be simply stated - a certain arrogant overconfidence far too early in his innings, which impels him to play strokes he would have been better off trying after getting set. On the day, though, Cullinan didn't put a foot wrong till, on 21, he pushed at a slower ball from Ankola and Tendulkar, normally among the safest of catchers, put the offering down. You don't do that to a player of Cullinan's class and not pay a price - and the Indian bowlers, in the event, picked up the tab as the batsman strung together a glorious array of strokes all round the wicket to rocket the run rate even faster.

Meanwhile, Kallis throttled back a gear when he saw his senior partner in murderous mood, and still managed to pull off an innings of 49 off 58 balls with four fours that should make any selection committee think ten times before shifting him from the number three slot. It was perfectly paced and played, this innings - and that is a Kallis trademark in ODIs. In the event, Robin Singh did him with one that nipped in sharply from off stump and kept low to have him plumb in front, and have SA three down for 129.

Jonty Rhodes is a hustler, going for his runs from the get-go, nudging into gaps and using his incredible foot speed to run twos where any other batsman would have been wondering whether a single was on, and spicing things up with the odd big hit off the loose delivery. And today's was another typical Rhodes effort, and he had gone along to 41 off just 45, with three fours, before he got rather overambitious (a feature of the day's game, actually, the number of batsman who got the bowling by the scruff of its neck and then threw it away trying to do too much) and moved away from a straight ball from Tendulkar which sat down on him, went under the flailing bat and pegged the stump back to have SA 221/4.

What needs keeping in mind is that the SA total had by then gone to 194 off just 35 overs, which means it was difficult to see a final score much under 300 - especially given the wickets in hand. India's only hope was for wickets to fall and, to the touring side's credit, it took a big step towards reining in the rampant batsmen when, first, Prasad produced a beauty bowled from close to the stumps, on the middle and off and moving away fractionally to sneak outside Cronje's (10 off 14) defensive bat and knock back the off stump (SA 242/5) and, a ball later, produced the perfect slower ball to have Pollock, flicking across the line, plumb in front for a nought.

At the turn, SA were 236/4 in 40 overs, and with six in hand, 300 was the only logical stopping place. Those two wickets however pegged things back a shade, and then Cullinan (60 off 51 with four fours and a six) succumbed to a case of too much ambition as he drew well away from stumps to try and hammer Kumble through the covers. It was the top spinner - the very worst ball to try that shot to - and it came through at a pace Prasad might have envied and made a mess of the stumps (SA 244/7).

Lance Klusener produced one of his belligerent cameos for 16 off 23 before Kumble castled him with another top spinner (SA 266/8) and Dave Richardson, not enjoying too good a run in this series with the bat, struck a couple of lusty blows including a huge six off Srinath to go out unconquered on 15 off 13, Bryson keeping him company with two off two and SA a huge 278 for eight in 50 overs.

The Indian fielding, as per usual, was just about okay. Given the number of short singles that were taken, it was amazing to see, time after time, the throw going past the stumps with the batsman well out of his ground. In such situations, the SA fielders hit more often than they miss - but India did not have one single run out to its credit. But then, the SA fielders are forever practising, while the Indian team prefers things a bit more relaxed.

As for the bowlers, analysing their performance on a wicket batsmen dream of is pretty pointless - they bowled as well as they were allowed to, and that says it all really. What India missed badly was Joshi for Ankola - the left arm spinner's deliveries would be leaving the right handers, and would have on this track posed more problems than Ankola who, well though he tried, was dead in the water on a wicket where the ball just begged to be belted.

The Indian innings

I'm not quite sure how these things are arranged up above, but again, the clouds opened up just one minute after the SA innings had ended. Yesterday, the rain came at precisely the same time, though of course it was India which had first strike then.

By the time the wet ended, ten overs had been lost, and the revised target - which, these days, are determined by a computer programme at the match referee's disposal - had India needing 251 to win in 40 overs. In other words, 251 in 240 deliveries.

Mind you, it was a perfectly good batting track, so the ask wasn't as daunting as it looks. What was needed was a sound opening, and for Sachin Tendulkar in particular to fire.

Well, India got the one, but not the other. Ganguly (5 off 10), who given the daunting asking rate had no option but to go for his shots, hit one pull from outside off which ballooned and fell safe, tried an encore only for Donald, who makes a speciality of these catches, to run a good 20 meters and then stick out his hands at the precise second when the ball, dropping over his head and in front of him as he ran back to the line, fell into it. These kind of catches win games for the fielding side, and in this case it reduced India to 18/1.

Sachin Tendulkar promptly went berserk. Rudi Bryson went for 20 in his first two overs, Pollock was dismissed with absolute contempt first through the covers, then through midwicket, Donald came on to replace the hapless Bryson and promptly went for two fours and India, after five overs, were 39 for 1, then a Sri Lanka-style 84/1 in 10.

The trouble with Hansie Cronje's bowling is that it irritates hell out of the batsman. It does just that little bit - holds a line on the stumps, is slow enough in pace and bowled with no shoulder in the delivery which means the ball won't climb above the stumps, and wobbles just that little bit in the air to ensure that strokeplay is rarely on. The best bet for batsmen is to work him round for singles - and Tendulkar (45 off 33 with 7 fours and a six) tried just that, flicking off the pads, only for the ball to stop on him a shade, resulting in the ball going in the air longer than intended and Bryson taking a clean catch at short fine leg. India 84/2 in 10.3. At that point, however, the Indian captain had already done the deed - he had brought down the asking rate, from over six per over, to an eminently gettable 168 off 178 deliveries. And in the process, ensured that the frontline SA bowlers were off patrolling the boundary lines, licking their wounds.

One incident occured in this phase that left a bad taste in the mouth. Dravid had, with a savage pull of Pollock in the first over he faced, already signalled that he wasn't going to hang around. And when Donald came on, he picked him clean as a whistle from outside off and hit up and over mid on for a six. It was a great shot off a great bowler. Next ball, Donald bowled a bouncer that climed a good couple of feet over Dravid's head, then charged down the wicket and, face to face with Dravid, gave him a heated mouthful. The ball after that was again short, Dravid played it down in front of him, and again the bowler cut loose with abuse. That was a sad sight - Donald on this tour has stood and applauded class shots off his bowling, and to see him lose it so totally out there left a bad taste in the mouth. It also, tangentially, raises the question of what match referee Barry Jarman will do, given that Indian fielders have got it in the neck for much less. In the event, Dravid produced the perfect answer when, off the last ball of that same over, he played a classic cover drive for yet another four, and Donald wandered off into the country with figures of 35 runs in four overs.

Azhar, meanwhile, was his usual self. He rarely seems to work up a sweat, and yet he is always going at a run a ball with flicks, placements through the off and the odd big hit. And so it was here, too, as he and Dravid put on a lovely partnership, characterised by good placing and running and the odd big hit, to take India to 109/2 in 15, 143.2 in 20 and 165/2 in 25 - well ahead of the run rate. Off the last ball of the 25th over, however, Azhar (45 off 44 with two fours) into the point region, looking for the single - and found Jonty Rhodes diving a long way forward to pull off a blinder.

Azhar, though, had done what was needed, taking India to a stage where the ask was 86 off 90 deliveries (15 overs). And when you remember that India had all of seven wickets standing, the gameplan was a mathematical one of nudging the singles around, and carrying on in the certainity that the odd loose delivery would come along or, even if it didn't, given that wickets were standing, the big hit could be employed in the last five, six overs to do the deed.

Ajay Jadeja seemed the man for the job, and he was going along nicely at 18 off 19 balls with one four and a huge straight six off Cronje which took him out of the attack. As to what happened next, Sunil Gavaskar said it best in the Star Sports commentary box: "The problem with some Indian batsmen is they try to be heroes, to win it with sixes where singles will do." Jadeja got under one from Klusener that was short and outside off, and where the trick was to have pushed through point for a couple, he tried to ease it over the top of cover for a six. Only to present Andrew Hudson an opportunity to come up with a good catch, diving forward, to take India to 198/4.

Meanwhile, the 30th over saw India on 194/3 - which meant that off the last 60 balls, India needed a further 57 and had all of seven wickets standing at that stage.

So why the extravagant hits?

Dravid, meanwhile, was playing the innings of a lifetime. His first 50 came in 44, then he sensibly throttled down, kept picking off the ones and twos and was going along nicely at 84 off 94 with five fours and the six (all the boundaries came before he was 45), when Klusener gave him one in the slot on middle stump, Dravid flicked and Kirsten, on the line at midwicket, came racing in and dived forward to pull off blinder number three of the innings. India 210/5.

Those two dismissals brought Karim and Robin Singh to the wicket. Both these batsmen had, in earlier outings, showed that they knew how to work the ball around and race singles and twos with perfect judgement. So why Singh (15 off 17 with one four) suddenly decided to run the impossible single when such risks were totally needless is one of those mysteries - in the event, Cronje picked up, threw and, needless to add, hit the stumps, and India 224/6.

India, mind you, was still very much in the game. The ask rate was just over six - and any kid will tell you that if you are there in the final overs, then the singles regularly taken, and a couple of boundary hits, does the job for you. Karim, though, chose to move away from the stumps and slash through covers - and Donald, back on for his third spell, needed no second invitation to slip the yorker under the bat and into middle stump. India 224/7, and, a ball later, 224/8 and out of it when Ankola, off the first ball he faced, tried to hit a full length ball from off stump to presumably backward square. Back went the stumps and Donald had got three down (one a run out) in three balls, and stormed back from the beating he took in his first and second spells. When he came on to bowl the last two overs, he had gone for 47 off 6 overs. When it all ended, he had bowled 7.2 overs, given away 48, and taken 3 - and this is precisely what great bowlers are made of, the ability to come through just when most needed. The third, of course, being Javagal Srinath, who with 17 runs to make off the last five, heaved high, wide and handsome for Cullinan to run a good 20 meters and finish things off with a brilliant diving catch.

Before theat, however, Kumble (6 off 5 with one four) went trying the impossible run, with Klusener running down on his follow through and kicking the ball onto the stumps, to have India at 230/9.

So that ended it, with India all out 234 with four balls to spare, after looking to have the match well in hand. Why? Because when it mattered most, SA kept its nerve in the field, flung themselves at everything and made catches out of thin air - all the bowlers had to do was bowl length and line, the fielding did the rest. And the Indian batsmen, at the same, time, appeared in too much of a hurry to finish things off and, in the process, threw to the winds the great work of Tendulkar, Dravid and Azharuddin at the top of the order.

It was, admittedly, a great effort against the odds by India, batting second and chasing at 6+ per over, which is something not too many teams have done in the history of ODIs. The way the batsmen clicked when they had to was heartening - and the way that the lower middle, yet again, failed to give their senior colleagues the support they were entitled to continues to disappoint.

Hansie Cronje said it best, after the game: "Sachin, Azhar and Dravid all but took the game away from us - we hung in there, didn't give up and that made the difference."

Doesn't it, always?

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