Pressure wreaked havoc on the last pair (19 June 1999)

19 June 1999

Pressure wreaked havoc on the last pair

Mark Baldwin

LONDON, June 18: Pressure! Like love, it can do strange things to a man! Australia's semi-final triumph over South Africa at Edgbaston was the stuff of cricketing legend, a barely-believable finish ending with the losers utterly distraught and the winners scarcely able to take in the reality of it.

How Lance Klusener, the big-hitter from Zululand, failed to score the one single run needed for victory when there were four deliveries of the match remaining is beyond logic.

Yet what happened inside his head and that of non-striker Allan Donald, during that gut-wrenching finale, will forever be recalled as evidence of how pressure tells.

Klusener tied the scores at 213 with yet more of the incredible hitting that has made him, so far, the undisputed man of the tournament. Despite losing a rattled Mark Boucher and the slow-moving Steve Elworthy, to a run-out, during the penultimate over, Klusener had responded heroically again to the challenge of scoring 16 runs from the final eight balls of a pulsating match.

In fact, with a bludgeoned six off Glenn McGrath and then two viciously-struck fours through extra cover off the first two balls of Damien Fleming's final over, Klusener had made a nonsense of what minutes earlier had seemed a huge task even for him.

But, amazingly, and with the winning line all but crossed, he and Donald panicked. Steve Waugh, Australia's captain, had no option but to bring all his fielders in, encircling Klusener in the knowledge that just one run was now needed and that his own side either had to take a wicket or force four 'dot' balls.

Klusener, if he had been calculating, would have backed himself to club one of the next four balls either through or over the ring. Donald, if he had used all his vast experience to stay calm, would have walked down to his pumped-up partner and agreed that they would only try to scamper a single if it got down to the very last ball.

But no such thing happened. The crowd, of course, were going crazy after Klusener's thumping blows, and in the din the South African pair made the error of not communicating. Earlier in the game Shane Warne, in the middle of his bewitching spell of 3-12 from eight overs, several times took a deep, deep breath at the start of his run-up in an effort to compose himself and prevent over-excitement taking hold of him.

Now, though, Klusener was merely intent on finishing it as quickly as he could. Logic had gone out of the window, but it was Donald who lost his nerve first.

Fleming's third ball was mis-hit to mid-on and Donald, for some unaccountable reason wandering up the pitch in search of a single, should have been run out by Darren Lehmann, who missed the bowler's stumps with an underarm throw from less than 10 yards away.

Still, there was no consultation between the South Africans as the cauldron bubbled ever more furiously. Three balls still remained, but now Klusener's nerve broke too. Digging out a near-yorker with another flail of the bat, and sending the ball bouncing and spinning up towards Donald, he put his head down and ran. It was a suicide mission and Donald, not knowing whether to look where the ball was going or to see what on earth Klusener was doing, stood rooted to the spot. He even dropped his bat, as some shell-shocked soldier dazed in the chaos of the battlefield might let drop his gun.

Klusener should have been run out but Mark Waugh's underarm throw from mid-off missed the stumps. The bowler, Fleming, grabbed it however, and relayed it to wicket-keeper Adam Gilchrist at the other end. Donald, bat-less, had only just begun to run when the stumps were broken and Pakistan at last knew who they were going to face at Lord's.

What a final is now in prospect! And Pakistan, with a precious extra day to prepare themselves and plan their strategy, must heed the lessons of South Africa's failure.

Hansie Cronje's side were clearly a better all-round side than Australia in both epic matches against them in this past week. The only, crucial, advantage Australia had, besides their determination never to give up, was the leg-spin of Warne.

South Africa have no spinner of class, which is why their otherwise magnificent bowling attack sometimes gets found out in the one-day arena. It is too samey - although, to be fair, keeping Australia down to 213 on a good pitch should have made sure of victory.

Warne's first spell, after the South African openers had cruised to 48 without loss in 12 overs, was even more sensational than Shoaib Akhtar's high-velocity yorkers. Warne is the reason Australia are in the final - but Warne, at his best once again after a winter of discontent following a shoulder operation, also covers over a lot of cracks in the Aussie bowling attack.

I believe, if Warne and Glenn McGrath can be denied a bag-full of wickets, that Pakistan will win quite comfortably. If McGrath knocks over two or three batsmen with the new ball, or if Warne repeats his Edgbaston performance in the early-middle part of the innings, then Pakistan might struggle.

But the Pakistan attack is by some distance the best, and best-balanced, of any nation in this World Cup and Australia's batting has - Steve Waugh apart - wobbled more than once against lesser bowlers already.

Lord's will see some of the greatest players of the age on Sunday - and it will be one or two of those truly class performers who will make the difference. Pakistan look like being without Yousuf Youhana in the middle-order, because of his continued hamstring complaint, and that would be a shame.

But Pakistan have a clutch of potential match-winners and, like Australia, an inspirational captain who has the total respect of his players. At the moment of semi-final victory over New Zealand, Wasim Akram could be seen on the Pakistan balcony shouting - to no-one in particular but mainly to himself - "One more to go - come on!"

Who will rise to the occasion in the World Cup final of 1999? And will anyone crumble under the pressure?

My guess is that you can pick your match-winner out of the following true greats: Wasim, Saeed Anwar, Inzamam, Moin Khan or Saqlain for Pakistan, or McGrath, Warne, Bevan or one of the Waugh brothers for Australia.

Pakistan, though, also have Shoaib...

Source :: The Dawn (www.dawn.com)