Cricket......

[EmptyB]

Stoked for Ireland!!!!!!!!!

[Shebeen]

1999 world cup. England

Licking their 1996 world cup wounds, the Proteas came into the 1999 version with a head of steam. Hansie was on top of the world as a cricketing brain (the devil hadn’t made him do anything yet, or so a court of law was told), Allan Donald was also into his third world cup and was still sending batsmen into all corners of the changing room. We also had this glut of all-rounders..so much so that Pollie would bat at 9.

We also had that Zulu guy, Klusener. We know how this story ends, but let’s look a bit more at the journey along the way.

 

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2nd Match: India v South Africa at Hove - May 15, 1999

India 253/5 (50/50 ov); South Africa 254/6 (47.2/50 ov)

South Africa won by 4 wickets (with 16 balls remaining)

Scorecard | Commentary | Photo index (3)

We only got them five down, but after the Sri Lankan fireworks had shifted the pace of the game 250 was still a decent score to defend. Klusener the bowler took three wickets, Jonty had his standard run out.

 

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zulu does damage

 

For some bizarre reason the idea of a pinch hitter was still an option. In this case it was again a keeper – Mark Boucher, who would come in at first drop. This never really worked, but at leats it looked like we were thinking about things. The standard practice in this era was to build an innings, and keep wickets in hand for a massive slog at the death.

Kallis did the building, a patient 96 at about 4.5 rpo before getting run out with the game basically sealed.  Four partnerships of 40+ kept us ticking over and there was almost three overs left when Zulu came in and showed his tournament hand early with three boundaries from four balls.

Edited February 16, 2015 by Shebeen

[Shebeen]

9th Match: South Africa v Sri Lanka at Northampton - May 19, 1999

South Africa 199/9 (50/50 ov); Sri Lanka 110 (35.2/50 ov)

South Africa won by 89 runs

Scorecard | Commentary | Photo index (3)

Playing the defending champions has never scared the proteas. Our batting here was useless – 3/24 (once again pinch hitter failed) became 8 for 122 off 35 overs. Note the dubious umpiring decision

 

Palmer then gave out Cullinan, caught by Vaas, who got rid of the ball just before he toppled over the boundary. This seemed justifiable under Law 32: Vaas retained complete control over the further disposal of the ball before touching the rope. Few South Africans took this view.

 

 

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the devil made hansie steal a run. he didn't get away with it

 

Of course it was up to a certain no9 to blast us to any sort of defendable total – Zulu topscored with 52 off 45. The last five overs were spent with AD blocking his way to 3 off 16. It was measured blasting, with the last over going for 22.

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King Kallis might have failed with the bat(he followed up his MotM performance with a very Kallis like 12 off 26), but he skittled the top3 cheap cheap and pollie and Donald got one each and all of a sudden they were 31/5. The final collapse came from 66/5 where they fell to 110 all out. Zulu with the ball took 3/21…and his first of many MotM awards.

 

Easy peasy, next please.

[Shebeen]

13th Match: England v South Africa at The Oval - May 22, 1999

South Africa 225/7 (50/50 ov); England 103 (41/50 ov)

South Africa won by 122 runs

Scorecard | Commentary | Photo index (1)

The hosts were up next, and the proteas are never scared of playing the hosts at a world cup (they are scared of the rain in their own country but that’s a different story). A magnificent opening stand, followed by a middle order collapse, followed by Klusener blasting away again.

Kirsey and Gibbs got us off to a rollicking Nelson at a run a ball. Then in the space of three overs they got one more run, both got out and were also joined by Kallis who got a duck. The entire middle order scratched around getting into double figures at slow rates and then getting out. Zulu was promoted above pollie(who got a duck) and blasted 48 off 40, including 12 off the final over. 225 was defendable these days.

Might seem strange now, but once again Kallis was opening the bowling and once again he struck right away. He got both openers out with 6 on the board and England never recovered from there. Donald took four in the middle order and they limped just over the 100 mark to be all out at 103.

 

MotM – do you even have to ask?

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[Shebeen]

20th Match: Kenya v South Africa at Amstelveen - May 26, 1999

Kenya 152 (44.3/50 ov); South Africa 153/3 (41/50 ov)

South Africa won by 7 wickets (with 54 balls remaining)

Scorecard | Commentary | Photo index (1)

 

Kenya in Holland…not a scary proposition really. Once again Klusener blasted the other team away, just this time with the ball. He took 5/21 to nail the tail(probably would have taken 7 if he bowled the 9 balls remaining in his quota).

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Zulu dangerous...with the ball.

 

Gibbs got off to a flyer, and we were a third of the way there after 10 overs. Then he got out, the pinch hitter (boucher) failed….again. Kallis and Cullinan got us over the line with an unbroken stand of 70 odd, but it came really slowly – no regards paid to the team run rate (which was insanely positive at this stage after all the big victories).

 

MotM - once again Zulu, his third in a row and he didn't even need to bat for this one.

[Shebeen]

I'm getting there...let me just post this now as it's like a car crash you see coming.

 

 

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[Shebeen]

26th Match: South Africa v Zimbabwe at Chelmsford - May 29, 1999

Zimbabwe 233/6 (50/50 ov); South Africa 185 (47.2/50 ov)

Zimbabwe won by 48 runs

Scorecard | Commentary | Article index (7) | Photo index (4)

Eish…here was the required wakeup call for the windgats who had sailed past all and sundry. Getting klapped by our neighbours was a serious bummer, and the consequences where far reaching too.

 

You could point to this result as being where we lost the tournament. If you follow from the point where we left it. The eventual loss to Australia in the semis was actually a tie/draw. It was then pulled back to the log from the Super Six where we were also tied with Australia, but they were ahead of us on run rate from within the super six table. Winning this game would have had us higher on this table. The one thing we did do by losing this game was kick England out of the tournament (had they gone through, we would have carried our win over them into the super six and technically gone ahead of Aus into the final). Such is the knife edge that these tournaments can teeter on (and how the good concept of super sixes is actually backward in execution - we will see this backfiring again for the organisers in 2003 and 2007).

Anyway. We have not forgotten!

this was twitfaced during last weeks match against Zim.

 

As we had already qualified the pedal was probably off the gas. BUT the loss had huge consequences so was no excuse. This match was all about a dominating South African raised all-rounder, but this time it was not Zulu but Neil Johnson. He could have played for SA, but the waiting list for the allrounder slot was looooong in those days so he went for his birth country instead. We must remember that this was probably the best Zim side of all time, they had the Flower brothers who were in the world top 10 rankings as batsmen and Heath Streak was a world class bowler. They had also beaten India earlier in the tournament so we knew they were not to be taken lightly.

 

A solid 65 run opening partnership at 5 an over laid the platform for a decent total of 233. Johnson top-scored with 76, but at about 4 an over and it was the general contributions of the middle order that got them there. We would have been confident of chasing this score down.

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Well that never even came close, as the top order collapsed. Only Cullinan got into double figures, but his 29 off 67 didn’t help the run rate pressure. Boucher the pinch hitter failed…again. We were reduced to 6/40 , and then Pollock came in (ahead of Klusener….seriously?). they occupied the crease together, but when Cullinan was gone it was 7/106. Zulu needed to go at 6 an over for 20 overs, with three wickets in hand. He did his best, top scoring with 52n.o., including a decent 35 run partnership again with Allan Donald (AD chipped in with 7 off 18). For the record Zulu had now batted four times, scored 164 runs at more than a run a ball and still not been dismissed. Yet he was still coming in at 9.

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Streak and Johnson took 3 each at less than 4 an over. Eish, what a low point, but well done Zim - nothing like putting one over your rich neighbours.

 

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[Vetseun]

I see on News 24 now that Greame Smith is getting divorced. I always thought that he would battle to keep a wife. After all the love that he gives himself, there cant be much left for her.

Edited February 18, 2015 by Vetseun

[GLuvsMtb]

I see on News 24 now that Greame Smith is getting divorced. I always thought that he would battle to keep a wife. After all the love that he gives himself, there cant be much left for her.

You must really not like the guy. I feel for the 2 kids who will most likely have a mommy in Ireland and a daddy in SA. They will only know their dad through the eyes of the media and by the insensitive comments of us keyboard ninjas. 

[GLuvsMtb]

Zim racked up a good win today against a fired-up UAE side. Between Zim and Ireland I would really like to see one of them progress to the knock-out stage. WI will know that they are going to have to get their acts together if they want to prevent this from happening. 

 

I'm looking forward to the England NZ clash tomorrow morning early. Lets hope that the Black Caps klap the poms hard. 

['Dale]

Zim racked up a good win today against a fired-up UAE side. Between Zim and Ireland I would really like to see one of them progress to the knock-out stage. WI will know that they are going to have to get their acts together if they want to prevent this from happening. 

 

I'm looking forward to the England NZ clash tomorrow morning early. Lets hope that the Black Caps klap the poms hard. 

 

 

The Steyn Remover out of training for 4 days now

Flu bugz

[Shebeen]

While it would be good to see one of the smaller teams make it through, it's really just a flash in the pan - Kenya made the semis in 2003, and that didn't really get them anywhere. What they need is more love from the ICC between the world cups.

 

 

 

 

I see on News 24 now that Greame Smith is getting divorced. I always thought that he would battle to keep a wife. After all the love that he gives himself, there cant be much left for her.

haters gonna hate. in more important news i see one of the media centres got laptops stolen. in NZ! crime is shocking there, come back okes!

[Shebeen]

2nd Super: Pakistan v South Africa at Nottingham - Jun 5, 1999

Pakistan 220/7 (50/50 ov); South Africa 221/7 (49/50 ov)

South Africa won by 3 wickets (with 6 balls remaining)

Scorecard | Commentary | Photo index (2)

Top of the table clash here with the two group winners head to head. They won the toss and got to a lank slow start – 100/3 off 30 overs. There was the standard Inzi run out Jonty (using the conventional throw it at the stumps technique). A late surge got them to 220. Kallis sent down over an extra over with 7 wides, runouts got the most victims with three but Elworthy was the pick with 2/23 off his 10.

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moin khan one of the run outs

 

Our chase got off to a bad start and then got worse. After 20 overs we were 5/60 and 220 seemed a long way off. Kallis did his slow steadying thing, Polly was STILL batting above Klusener and when he went out at 135/6 it was already 6 an over.

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Gibbs one of the early victims to Shoaib

 

Obviously Klusener rescued us, AGAIN. It rubbed off a bit on Kallis who accelerated a bit(he was on 5 off 35 at one stage, so the only way was up). By the time he went we needed 50 odd off the last 5 so Zulu just got on with it, with Bouch chipping in with singles keeping him on strike. We got home with an over to spare, also helped by the 38 extras dished up by the pakis (14 wides, lekker!).

Klusener got his usual MotM award now(anyone still counting?), had now scored 210 runs without being dismissed, but he did give a chance from what came to be the winning runs

48.6

Saqlain Mushtaq to Klusener, 2 runs, swinging down the wicket, top edge, Saeed is under it at mid off, what an important catch this will be, could Pakistan get back into it? DROPPED!

 

what a win for South Africa, they did lie full low, graved in the hollow ground, but came back magnificently the partnership of Kallis and Pollock was the match-saver, whilst the ever-dependable big hitting of Lance Klusener was the match winner... the ways the guys crawled out of that showed tremendous character....." Klusener is the Man of the Match: says his bat is a brand new one and that was a nice start for it 

 

from the commentary archive

[Shebeen]

6th Super: New Zealand v South Africa at Birmingham - Jun 10, 1999

South Africa 287/5 (50/50 ov); New Zealand 213/8 (50/50 ov)

South Africa won by 74 runs

Scorecard | Commentary | Article index (2) | Photo index (1)

Finally the top order did their job – Gibbs and Kirsten got us off to a massive stand of 176 at 5 an over. When Kirsey finally fell with 15 overs left, Zulu got promoted up the order to drive the nail home. He finally failed, going for 4. It was the first time in ten matches he’d been dismissed (racking up a world record 400 runs along the way).

 

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Zulu got sent to fineleg for failing with the bat

 

 

Kallis took over the bash bash role to score a quick 50 at 147 SR, and along with Hansie took 60 runs off the last 6 overs.

They were never in the game, and by the time they were 4/107 with 20 overs left the required run rate was already 8 an over. The wickets were shared around, but Kallis’ 2/15 off 6 sneaked him the MotM over Gibbs/Kirsten.

[Shebeen]

 

coming up next.

[Vetseun]

Bye England. Thanks for coming.