Cape Town – South Africa’s reliance of the K factor emerged during the WorldCup last year when mostly Lance Klusener engineered victory out of any number ofimprobable situations
Trevor Chesterfield26-Jan-2000Cape Town – South Africa’s reliance of the K factor emerged during the WorldCup last year when mostly Lance Klusener engineered victory out of any number ofimprobable situations. On occasions we also had Jacques Kallis embroidering afew fancy touches.At Newlands on Wednesday both combined to give England a double barrel blast inone of the more sensational finishes to a slogs event as we are going tosee in this particular triangular series.And at the end of it all, with four needed off the last ball to win, DarrenGough swings at a Kallis delivery and the best he can gallop is a two as SouthAfrica scrape home by one run.No doubt it will go down in the column of matches won by one run or less insome esoteric book of records and close finishes in LOIs; and yes, for many itwas a tad like the players enclosure being knee deep in chewed finger-nails(yet again). Even the Barmy Army pals were arguing whether or not to singthe “Run, Allan, run …” ditty they love trotting out so much on this tourThis time the refrain might be transferred to “Oh no, Goughie, we needed afour …” as Kallis, man of the match, bowled the last delivery in an over which had even a touch of Shakespearean drama as the finger of fate flicked first England’s way then South Africa’s.In the 49th over bowled by Shaun Pollock, five deliveries went for 16 runs asMark Ealham and Chris Read almost slogged their way into history. Two Pommiewins in this series over South Africa may have triggered an identity crisis.When did England last win consecutive matches is one question which suggeststhey are the sort of side which doesn’t know how to perform such miracles.Read clobbered a six and a four as well as a single as Pollock was pasted allover Newlands. Ealham swung and picked up a boundary. When he swung again andgot a delivery high on the bat (as near to the splice you are going to get) anJonty Rhodes took as pretty a safe catch as you are going to see.Andrew Caddick arrived and Read swung again grabbed a single, facing Kallisand the start of the last over. South Africa’s captain, Hansie Crone, seemed tohave trusted his instincts as well as gut feel on this one and declined tobowl himself or Pieter Strydom. He relied on his front five and backed them andthat was enough. Cronje admitted, though “the game was all too close”.Winning the toss and deciding that reputations being what they are after duskat Newlands batting first was the best option and the best way to turn aroundthat dreadful nine wickets thrashing in Bloemfontein on Sunday.The pitch was about as snail pace as was Goodyear Park in Bloem last Sundayand the outfield even slower than it was during the fourth Test. Boundaries werefar from easy and galloping threes was almost a compulsory exercise. So it wasno mean feat for the likes of Nick Knight to slap the first and Ealham tochalk up the second to bring England that little closer.Building partnerships was far from being an exercise as the slow puncture weexperienced in the South Africa innings all but repeated itself. Kallisknuckled down and built an innings of 43 as he watched the procession ofHerschelle Gibbs, Jonty Rhodes and his captain come and go. There had beenspeculation Rhodes would be ready for the game and he came in at four in theorder with Dale Benkenstein left out as the selectors made three necessarychanges: Mornantau Hayward for Nicky Boje, Rhodes for Benkenstein and Williamsfor David Terbrugge who had such a disappointing game in Bloemfontein.There was the suspicion Terbrugge was in need to a re-evaluation of hisbowling form having missed out at the Wanders and being pushed in against England in Bloemfontein. He should have played in the first game against Zimbabwe at the Wanderers to see what he can do. But the selectors have no doubt now got the idea that it was not a good idea in either Bloem or Newlands.Kallis was run out by an Ealham throw for 43: running slap into the rotundNatal umpire Wilf Diedricks and failing to make good his ground. It was atouch bizarre and ironic.Klusener took over, but as with Kallis runs were not easy: chipping away atold myths and new theories seemed to go hand in glove. He did what he could before the run out.It Kallis did what he could to nurse the total along Klusener looked forpartners to build the innings and take the score past the 200 mark. It was apsychological thing; South Africa needed to get their act together. Klusenerdid it with a typical flourish.What happened next is typical slogs flare. Every time South Africa startedbuilding a total new crisis would arise. On the face of it they were lucky toget to a pick up 200; after that it was a bonus. Gough bowled tidily with swing and seam and awkward angles.While Nasser Hussain went quickly to a peachy delivery; it was a question ofcollecting other wickets. There was some care, stubborn and solid resistancefrom Nick Knight and Graeme Hick with the pair building a partnership of 68.Then the two fell quickly (within in three balls as it were) with Hick fallinglbw to Kallis and Knight getting an edge. The rest of the innings started to lose its drive with some outstanding bowling and fielding which reduced their areas of frustration for South Africa.Chris Adams looked the part of a batsman trying to save the innings butonce he went the charade South Africa kept on plugging away and the result was in doubt until that final delivery – the crowd’s cheering drew attention that either side could win – it was that sort of uncertainty which comes over the game as the bowlers are hard to get away and the batsmen fret about putting runs on the board.England seemed to win and then lose the scent in their quest for runs. As the wickets fell the moon was just that extra too high to reach and Polly and Kallis were that much better than they had been in Bloemfontein.South Africa though proved to on top of the situation and with more slog thannudge and push, England almost got there before Kallis bowled that final over – in the end pushing the hosts into the log lead and silencing the Barmy Army.