The South African bowlers were brilliant. They rose to the occasion to bring their team a first ever outright victory in the knockout section of any World Cup. Remember they tied once with Australia in the 1999 semi-final only to be tossed out for having lost to them in the league? Who would have believed then that the spinners would be the heroes of the day for the usually pace-heavy Proteas?
The transformation came for the world’s serial chokers in this win over Sri Lanka in Sydney on Wednesday. All the signs were wrong at the start – they had piled on the runs when batting first on four occasions in this World Cup and choked twice in the chase. And they had to chase again today as the coin favoured Angelo Matthews. The challenge could not have been bigger.
The quicks rose to the task first with a level of intensity not seen for while in the one-day game. Steyn, Abbott and Morkel were right up there in exploiting the bounce in the pitch with sheer pace and managing movement enough to bottle up the top three batsmen. The spinners were a revelation, but then they were working on a firm base built by the pace bowlers.
Before the game the experts had gone to town about the lack of a fifth specialist bowler in the ranks of the Proteas. Part time off spinner Jean Paul Duminy stepped up on the big occasion by making a simple technical adjustment. He gave the ball air to induce doubts in the batsmen already rendered docile by being pushed on to the backfoot by the pace and intensity of the quicks.
Long before Duminy got into the act with a (split) at-trick, the spinner to shine was Imran Tahir. The wizened look of the wily leggie was quite appropriate as his grey cells seemed to be working overtime on the day. He taunted the batsmen, including the redoubtable Sangakkara, with the wrong ‘uns. Not turning as much the googly, the delivery kept the batsmen guessing because Tahir got the ball to skid and spin in the opposite direction – from left to right.
Tahir’s dismissal of Thirumanne was the key to the plot. He was one top order batsman who took the fight to the fast bowlers driving Morkel on the rise through the covers with authority. Tahir beat him in the air and induced the return catch that saw the spinners then establish such a hold on the batsmen that not even the seasoned Mahela Jayawardene, arguably one of the finest players of spin, could wriggle out of the web of spin.
AB de Villiers showed the intent to attack far more today even if he did not emulate McCullum at the start by posting a third slip for the quicks. Nor did he post a slip straightaway for his spinners, which might have led to the early dismissal Sangakkara’s anchoring effort. That he brought a slip in soon and saw the fielder take a catch too to add to the wickets tally as Sri Lanka collapsed reflected how splendidly his spinners bowled. This was a victory that was owed to the bowlers and their captain who broke the great World Cup knockout jinx.
