South Africa live down to reputation

CRICKET:IT IS a word traditionally associated with South African cricket. Five letters long, rhymes with yoke, begins with "C". A real cliche. And it is going to be hard for anyone to describe this quarter-final without using it.

For 76 overs they were in control. New Zealand had been held to an underwhelming total of 221. After cruising through the first half of their innings South Africa needed 102 runs from 23 overs and had seven wickets in hand. Easy. Then everything fell apart.

In the next 10 overs five wickets fell for 25 runs. Soon after, the game was up. One of the strongest and most fancied teams in the tournament were out, and New Zealand, nobody’s favourites, had taken their place in the semi-finals.

Credit to them, their fielding was exceptional, their batting solid and their bowling sharp. But Graeme Smith’s side will know this was a game they should have won. As the wickets tumbled their players and coaching staff sat out front of the dressingroom, some running their hands through their hair, others staring at the ground, an atmosphere of disbelief and anger lying thick over all.

“I always felt that 222 was very getable,” said Smith. So did everyone else.

New Zealand’s total had been built around Jesse Ryder, a batsman who has been typecast as an irresponsible rogue but who here scored a restrained and resolute 83 from 121 balls. As slow as his stand of 114 with Ross Taylor seemed at the time, it turned out to be the defining partnership of the match.

But in a way the low total worked to New Zealand’s advantage. Daniel Vettori said they knew the only way to defend such a low score was to take 10 wickets, and so he decided to attack, abandoning any thought of saving runs.

He opened with two spinners, only the fourth time in one-day international cricket a team has done so. They had a little luck at first, Hashim Amla was caught in the first over as a cut ricocheted off the wicketkeeper’s foot and shot to slip. That brought out Jacques Kallis, and he bedded in. He put on 61 with Smith and 39 with AB de Villiers.

If a single moment turned the game it was the catch that removed Kallis, a brilliant running effort from Jacob Oram. JP Duminy then offered an execrable shot to Nathan McCullum and was bowled. Two balls later De Villiers was crazily run out and all of a sudden the pressure was suffocating South Africa.

A fracas broke out that may cost New Zealand, as the referee is investigating Vettori’s behaviour.

This was Smith’s last match as one-day captain. He took over eight years ago, and this was a sorry way to end. South Africa’s World Cup scars run deep, and for all his achievements he has not been able to heal them.