Zulu warrior kills off Kiwi hopes

Paul Martin Cainer   in Cape Town

It was like one of those movies where the hero is in an impossible corner and is about to die a terrible death. But we all know that he is the hero and must really survive or we’ll be leaving the cinema a half-hour too early. Lance Klusener is not just South Africa’s but the whole world’s greatest escape artist, and true to the usual script, in the last of six one-dayers here against New Zealand, he made the near-impossible become thrilling reality.

With seven wickets down and scores of runs to chase, “Zulu” (a reference to his being from a province where, though he is while, the majority are from the Zulu black African tribe) was sharing the crease with a raw debutante, off-spinner Shafiek Abrahams, a “mixed race” player put in for the experience rather than on merit. (That was justifiable as South Africa were already leading 4-nil with one match to go in the one-day series.) To come, only Alan Donald (who in that incredible finish against Australia in the World Cup semi-final last year literally could not hold a bat in his hands), and complete rabbit Telemachus.

The script dictated that Klusener would blaze away, but he seemed rather subdued for several overs.

The Kiwis bowled cleverly to Abrahams, making sure he found scoring singles very difficult. With 49 runs needed off the last 5 overs, the Kiwis scented victory at last.

Then Klusener hammered two sixes in successive balls (one of them mistimed but still clearing the ropes thanks to his enormous power). The seemingly impossible was becoming remotely possible. Then off the third last over, bowled by the before-then most successful Kiwi bowler Shayne O’Connor, came another two successive sixes by Klusener. The umpire so nearly robbed South Africa off the last ball of the 49th over, when a clear wide, missed by Abrahams, was not signalled.

It came down to needing seven runs off the last two balls. Could Klusener hit two boundaries in a row? Of course he could ... and he did, hammering the last ball, which he made into a full-toss, through mid-wicket in the air for four.

He had scored 59 not out in 43 balls, and was again Man of the Match, and clearly the key figure in the series.

Winning the series 5-nil has been an enormous boost for the South Africans, who will now feel confident of winning the upcoming Test series. Their main problem is how to partner Gary Kirsten as opener -- Darryl Cullinan was used in that role today, but made only ten, and has not looked good in his return to one-day cricket. He may be a better proposition in the five-day game, though.

South Africa’s captain Shaun Pollock conceded that the gap between the two sides wasn’t quite as wide as the final outcome, with the last three matches being very close. Stephen Fleming noted: “You could point out in most games the moments when one player has taken the game away from us. That was the difference at the end of the day.”

The New Zealanders did look very good during their innings at Newlands. There was a 150-run partnership between Chris Cairns and Roger Twose. Cairns hit four sixes, including two successive straight hits off Jacques Kallis and two sixes in an over from South African captain Shaun Pollock. In all he smashed a belligerent 84 off 72 balls.

Alongside him, the 32-year-old Twose ( the nearly-man of Kiwi cricket) finally made his first one-day century, in his 75th one-dayer. He had gone past 50 but not reached a century on 20 occasions, and he nearly fell short of his ton again, but was dropped on the boundary when he was on 97. He was out for 103. Ironically, both men will be flying home now -- considered one-day specialists not worthy of test selection.

The pair had pulled New Zealand out of their disastrous start (39 for three), but -- in retrospect -- the match was lost though being too slow in the last five overs, when the Kiwis could only add 19, while losing four wickets. Still, 256 for nine looked a hard total to beat on a traditionally far-from-easy Newlands wicket. The New Zealanders 256 runs had been 11 better than the previous highest one-day international total at this glorious ground nestling under Table Mountain.

The task looked even tougher when O’Connor captured the first three South African wickets, and South Africa were reeling at 30 for 3.

In-form Gary Kirsten gave a return catch to Chris Harris when he had scored 65, but Jonty Rhodes and Mark Boucher put the innings back together again, each scoring half-centuries and putting on 106 for the fifth wicket. That served as the prelude to the royal entry of the Zulu warrior.

Fleming says that the tourists are now looking forward to a “change of pace” -- moving from the helter-skelter of one-daymanship to the relatively sedate procedures of Test matches. I doubt if the going for New Zealand will be much easier though, in the three test-matches to come.

Scorecard and graphic analysis

Mail Cricket Editor