Today was a day of the impossible and of things that shouldn’t have happened. Before we get into them, let’s set the scene.

World Cup 2000: Alan Donald makes an atrocious call and runs out Lance Klusener who very nearly single-handedly got us through to the final on his batting strength alone. This means that the match is a draw and Australia go through. It is a scene which will make a grown South African man cry and many of us have blocked out that match completely from our memory.
2004: South Africa vs Australia, Cricket World Cup semi-final. Mark Boucher facing in a rain-affected match. The complex Duckworth-Lewis system comes into effect which means that the dressing room needs to send a message to Boucher to tell him how many runs we need to win, according to the formula. The incorrect message was sent and umpire Steve Bucknor does not allow Sean Pollock onto the field to correct the message. As a result, with one ball remaining in the final over and with South Africa needing one run to win, Boucher turns down an easy single which means the match is tied and we are knocked out of the World Cup due to Australia having a better aggregate run rate in the competition (and they go on to win the World Cup).

2005/2006: South Africa tour Australia with disastrous results, losing just about everything (including a 116-run drubbing in the once-off Pro 20). The lowlight is our continued ability to drop catches at key moments in matches. Not only do we lose the test series but are also knocked out of the 3-way VB Series (Sri Lanka being the 3rd team) and return home disconsolate. Smith has a very poor tour and his captaincy is called into question by many.

March 2006: The return leg is in South Africa and after unexpectedly winning the (only) Pro 20 game, the Proteas go up 2-0 in the series which includes a brilliant victory by bowling Australia out for under 100 after posting a formidable total. Australia bounce back to win the next game and the 4th is a nail-biter seeing the visitors sneak home with one wicket to spare and almost as many balls left.

It is this context (especially our history of failing against Australia in the big matches) which sets up our “day of the impossible” at the Wanderers. This is the match which decides the series and will give the winners a huge psychological edge for the test series starting on Friday. Much more is at stake than simply who wins this match.

Technorati Tags: Australia, cricket, Herschelle Gibbs, ODI, Ricky Ponting, South Africa, Wanderers

Ricky Ponting wins the toss and decides to have a bat. It looks to be a good batting wicket although with the possibility of some movement upfront. He backs his openers to do the job which they’re quite up to: the score is ?? when Gilchrist departs, falling to a brilliant one-handed pluck by a diving (or falling?) Andrew Hall at mid-on. That brings Ponting to the crease and he puts on an exquisitive batting performance, scoring 164 off 105 balls including a huge six off Kallis which lands outside the ground (and Wanderers is not a small ground).

Somehow Australia managed to keep scoring at 8 an over, aided by some poor SA bowling (Telemachus gave the gift of 4 no-balls in a row in the 3rd last over which eventually went for 28 runs - but he got the wicket of Ponting; before that over he was the pick of the South Africans). Hussey timed his way to 81 and Symmonds ended up on 27 off 13. Amazingly the Australians blazed past the previous highest score of 398 set 10 years ago (in the aforementioned Telemachus over) and finally scored 434 for 5 after 50 overs. Impossible! No one has even got close to that total in the last 10 years. But they did it.

I was trying to imagine Smith’s lunchtime pep talk to the guys. What would he say? Would he seriously say they could chase it down? The highest score ever scored by a team batting second was just a few months ago - 332 by New Zealand chasing a mammoth Australian total - and SA would need over 100 more to win. 434 is just not possible, not chasing, not with the run rate hanging over your head all the time, not if wickets had to fall, not with sustained spells of good bowling. The commentators summed it up well in a cliche full of truth: “They’ve just got to come out and play as best as they can,” but there was never much hope of a win, just of some entertainment before the inevitable.

But this was a day of the impossible.

It seemed to be the start of the inevitable when Dippenaar went cheaply for 3. There was even a feeling that South Africa would roll over cheaply in much the same way as their opponents did 3 games ago, all out for less than 100. But after Smith blitzed his way to 90 off 55, AB de Villiers joined a belligerent Gibbs who was closing in on his century. After reaching it off 79 balls, he scored 75 in his next 30 finishing with 175 off 111. His departure brought Kallis to the crease, soon to be joined by Boucher after AB was caught on the boundary trying to keep the run rate up over 8. De Villiers, Kallis and Kemp didn’t do too much, but van de Wath and Telemachus hit valuable runs at a vital time.

And so the final over dawns. Boucher and Hall in, the score is 428 for 8 and South Africa are in real danger of being bowled out. They only need 7 runs from 6 balls. Herewith the commentary from crickinfo.com:

49.1 Lee to Boucher, 1 run, half volley, Boucher drives it away straight into the foot of the bowler, rebounds to the keeper, gee he hit it hard
49.2 Lee to Hall, FOUR, good length delivery, Hall drives the ball off the back foot over mid wicket, the game is all but over
49.3 Lee to Hall, WICKET, drives in the air to mid on, throws his wicket away at the doorstep of victory!!!

This brings our rabbit to the crease - the worst batsman in the team - Makhaya Ntini. Admittedly he’s worked on his batting but he is still a genuine number 11. 2 runs to win off 3 balls and it can go either way. Will we fail now and prove history correct?

49.4 Lee to Ntini, 1 run, good line and length delivery, Ntini pushes it off the back foot down to third man, as cool as a cucumber!! Scores tie

And well we’ll remember the yelp he gave in calling for the single!

49.5 Lee to Boucher, FOUR, good length delivery, Boucher drives over mid on, it’s all over, SA win with a wicket and a ball to spare - well played SA a miracle!
I can’t believe it!! What an amazing victory for South Africa, they deserve the win, Australia needs to regroup very very quickly before Friday’s First Test. Good night from the Wanderers
Well, South Africa wins the series 3-2, well deserved performance. This match certainly the equal of the “Humdinger” match played at Port Elizabeth in 1986-87. Congratulations to the home side, back to the drawing board for the visitors.

South Africa win with a ball to spare! Impossible! An impossible target and an impossible victory!

Real recognition should be given to Ricky Ponting, especially by all those South Africans who view the Australian team as extremely arrogant. Ponting had the best one day innings - ever - before Gibbs came to the crease. He captained a side that scored a huge world record total and surely could not fathom being the losing team. He was awarded joint man-of-the-match with Gibbs but declined the honour, saying Gibbs was the deserved winner.

And a quote from Herschelle Gibbs: “We just knew we had to go out and score quickly. It never really crossed our minds that we could do it.”

Gotta get the DVD!