South Africans prove their superiority (4 November 1998)

4 November 1998

South Africans prove their superiority

Elmo Rodrigopulle

The South Africans led admirably by Hansie Cronje pocketed the Wills Trophy by winning the mini World Cup tourney in Bangladesh and served notice that they will be strong challengers for the next World Cup tourney in England next year.

The Proteas victory is all the more creditable considering that they were sans their hit men Allan Donald and Shaun Pollock. Earlier the South Africans won the Commonwealth Games title fielding a depleted side.

The South Africans who were in cricket's wilderness for over 20 years owing to their sickening apartheid policies have become a force to be reckoned with in world cricket since rejoining the big league.

They made their first appearance in the World Cup in 1992 and over the years have come a long way with dedication, determination and the will to succeed.

Skipper Cronje who took over from Kepler Wessels has done a marvellous job in moulding his squad into a superb strike force. With the irrepressible former captain Dr. Ali Bacher as the guiding light and the clever and intelligent coaching by former England allrounder Bob Woolmer, the South Africans are now a very competent unit and will go out favourites for the next World Cup.

They have some elegant cricketers who fit in well to the one-day as well as the established game. While players of the calibre of the captain Daryll Cullinan, Jacques Kallis and Rindle have been outstanding as batsmen and with their second string bowlers obliging they proved the better side in Bangladesh.

But the man who is making all the difference to this side with his excellent fielding and batting is that 'jack in the box' the agile Jonty Rhodes.

His fielding is from out of this world. What has made him probably the best fielder in the world is his marvellous anticipation. Rhodes has set high standards in the aspect of fielding. In the past cricketers wanted to be brilliant batsmen or tearaway pacemen. But Rhodes has reversed that trend and today young ones taking to the game are yearning to emulate Rhodes. He certainly has given the fielding aspect a new dimension.

When he caught Chaminda Vaas he signalled to the batsman that he was caught out cleanly. But Vaas cannot be faulted for standing his ground until the umpire ruled him out. Had Rhodes caught the ball on the bounce he would have told Vaas so. Rhodes is an amazing fielder and he will provide many more fielding thrills when he takes the field.

This tournament in Bangladesh was marked by the superb batsmanship of Indian champion Sachin Tendulkar and the promising Philo Wallace from the Caribbean. They set the tournament alight. As for India once again the failure of Tendulkar knocked them out.

As for the Sri Lankans they can take solace in the fact that they were deprived of making a game of it as the weather turned cruel to them against South Africa.

When rain intervenes and a game is reduced from the original target it takes away the game as a competition and loses its spectacle as was proved in their semi-final encounter.

From 50 overs a side it was reduced to 39 and then again to 34 thus making the game somewhat of a mockery. However one cannot take away the credit from the South African victory.

After the South Africans were put in and made an imposing 239 for 8 in 39 overs rain just before the Lankans began their reply further reduced the over rate and Sri Lankan had to score 240 in 34 overs which was a tough task but one that could have been reached had our frontline batsmen fired. But the Lankans floundered with some inept batting and the wrong approach.

The batsmen instead of staying put, playing from the crease, or off the back foot should have moved down the wicket and met the ball. But that was not to be and the bottom line was defeat. Aravinda de Silva, Sanath Jayasuriya and Roshan Mahanama played with an impetuous idiocy quite unbecoming of them.

But as the island well knows, we cannot win all the time, we have had and will continue to have our off days, as skipper Arjuna Ranatunga has said.

But the Lankans need not be dejected. Cricket is always a learning game and we hope that coach Roy Dias and Manager, Ranjit Fernando would have taken them to the drawing boards and showed them where they went wrong.

Sri Lanka's next tournament is in Sharjah and we cannot understand why the selectors did not make a couple of changes to the squad that lost in Bangladesh.

Source :: Daily News (https://www.lanka.net)