South Africa, after the resounding win against Zimbabwe, hadmoved to second place ahead of their neighbours on the point’stable
Keith Lane30-Sep-1999South Africa, after the resounding win against Zimbabwe, hadmoved to second place ahead of their neighbours on the point’stable. To be sure of a place in the final on Sunday, they howeverneeded to win this match by a big margin to increase their netrun rate.This was not to be. Whether the South Africans underestimated theKenyans will not be known but the experimentation continued.Firstly Hansie Cronje decided to opening the batting, thendecided to bowl three overs from a five meter run-up giving away21 runs. Paul Adams was also allowed to bowl his full quota of 10overs for 59 runs that included five wides, while Shaun Pollockand Steve Elworthy had overs in hand. If it was not for the SouthAfrican fielding they might just not have won this match.Losing the toss and asked to bat first by Maurice Odumbe, SouthAfrica with their rotation policy came into the game with threechanges, Boeta Dippenaar for Herschelle Gibbs, Elworthy for DerekCrookes and Victor Mpitsang for Alan Dawson. Kenya left outJosephat Ababu for debutante Peter Oshieng.The first surprise of the day was that captain Cronje came out toopen the innings with Dippenaar, while Martin Suji and ThomasOdoyo were entrusted with the new ball. Unlike yesterday’s earlyovers, the Kenyan bowlers strayed to both sides of the wicketsand it was Dippenaar who recorded the first boundary of the daywith a little flick to fine leg. He followed this with two morefours, one to backward square leg and one past backward point,off the bowling of Suji.Cronje was soon on his way, playing back and fishing outside off,nudged the ball to Kennedy Otieno’s right and taking a very goodone handed catch. Cronje’s demise for two left South Africa at23/1 and made way for Lance Klusener to come to the wicket.Klusener, being tucked up by the bowlers, struggled to free hisarms and battled with the pace of pitch. It was not until theninth over that he did manage to drive Suji away to the long onfence boundary and repeated the same shot to Odoyo the next over.Under the overcast conditions the Kenyan bowlers slowly regainedtheir composure, getting the line and length right to makescoring difficult for the two batsmen.With Suji moving the ball away off a good length, Dippenaar whohad played and missed a few balls outside the off, struck aglorious cover drive in the 13 th over. If there was one notablemistake in his technique it seemed to be the ball fullish inlength outside the off. His foot was just not getting far enoughacross causing him to push at the ball as it went by.With only 12 runs being scored between overs 10 and 16 the Kenyanpace bowlers had, as they had done against India, done amarvellous job with the ball. Containing one of the mostaggressive batsmen in one-day international cricket was going topay dividends.This it did, as a frustrated Klusener trying to force the pace,got a leading edge to Anthony Suji that went high to long on forOdoyo to take a good running catch. Klusener, who made 22, wassoon followed by Dippenaar for 26 as he skied Ochieng to midwicket for Ravindu Shah to take the catch. South Africa had gonefrom 55/2 to 56/3.A contrast in technique, with similar results, betweenBenkenstein, using his feet and Jacques Kallis, playing from thecrease, resulted in one’s and two’s with the occasional fourbeing scored around the ground.The recovery was short lived when Benkenstein received a fulltoss from Sheikh and pulled it straight into the hands of Odoyoat mid-wicket. A short breezy innings of 12 came to adisappointing end and South Africa 83/4.Jonty Rhodes came to the crease and nearly left it four ballslater. Holding back on a shot outside the off, from Sheikh, hescooped the ball to backward point where Alpesh Vadher was a bitslow to get to the catch.Rhodes receiving a full toss from Sheikh, showed Benkenstein whathe should have done, by sending the ball high over the wide longon fence for the maximum and bringing up the South African 100 inthe 31 st over. A second straight six followed from Sheikh’s nextover.Vadher must have cursed his slip in the field when Rhodes playedthe shot of the day off Odumbe, a cracking cover drive past extracover. Rhodes had raced to 30 when he should have been outwithout scoring.Rhodes, one of the few South African batsmen who can play spin,employed the sweep and pull sweep to great effect. Kallisfollowing suit was content to give the bowling to his partner,plus putting the odd short ball away to the point boundary.The 50 partnership came up in the 36 th over with Rhodescontributing 38 of them. With no Lance Klusener to come and saveSouth Africa, Rhodes had filled the big mans shoes admirably.Captain Odumbe, who could not stop the “Jonty Express” takingimpossible singles, reverted to his pace bowlers for thebreakthrough.It was Martin Suji who proved Rhodes’s undoing. In trying toclear the long on fence Rhodes got under it and gave Ochieng aneasy catch near the boundary to depart for 45 off 46 deliveries,helping South Africa to 156/5As so often happens in a good partnership, Kallis followed soonafterwards. Slashing a vicious cover drive at a half volley fromAnthony Suji, Kallis could only smile as Odoyo snatched a rocketout of the air at short cover. Kallis was gone for 39 and SouthAfrica 158/6 in the 40 th over.Once again South Africa had two new batsmen at the crease. Withonly one recognised batsman, Elworthy, to come additionalresponsibility had been placed on Pollock and Mark Boucher. Oneof Rhodes or Kallis should have made sure of batting through theinnings.As Rhodes did, Pollock and Boucher used the sweep to accumulateruns between square leg and fine leg. Pollock did however in the45 th over come down the pitch to hoist Tikolo for maximum atlong off.The 200 came up in the 48 th over with both batsmen still contentto work the ball into gaps. Good running turned one’s into two’swith one quick run turning into three because of an unnecessaryoverthrow from Tikolo.Pollock started the 49 th over sending Odoyo out the park at longon. Trying it once too often, and playing across the line, sawhimself bowled for 30. He had hit one four and two sixes and tookthe score to 207/7.Some good running by Elworthy and Boucher, plus a four fromBoucher saw 11 runs coming off the final over, bowled by Odumbe,for South Africa to end their 50 overs on 220/7.Martin and Anthony Suji were the best of the Kenyan bowlers withtwo wickets apiece, while Sheikh and Tikolo gave away 61 runs intheir combined 10 overs.Kenya needing 221 to win, and cause a big upset in thetournament, started off nervously with Kennedy Otieno and RavinduShah sparring outside the off to Pollock and content to defend toKallis.Pollock started the afternoon session with three maidens in arow, while Kallis had given away 3 boundaries, one driven byShah, one edged past the slips by Shah, and one off Shah’s pads.Kallis started the sixth over having Shah put down by Pollock atsecond slip, and then watched Otieno come down the pitch andsmack him over extra cover for four.Pollock made amends for the dropped catch by having Shah drivingand edging to Boucher for nine. Kenyan were nearly 20/2 whenVadher survived a huge appeal for LBW first ball up to whatlooked like a ball that just pitched outside the line.Kallis bowling at quite a pace, bowled the odd wide, but was alsobeating the bat with regularity. When he did twice catch the edgeof the bat the ball landed just short of second slip. He got hisreward in the 12 th over catching Otieno right in front, on theback foot, for seven and Kenya’s second wicket was down for 28.Steven Tikolo who started slowly severely punished anythingloose. He cut Steve Elworthy past point, pulled Klusener tosquare leg and made a meal of Paul Adams.Elworthy was back to his normal length and after four overs hadbrought his economy rate back to two runs an over. Bowling withenough pace and not giving the batsmen any width or room to playtheir shots in, made it easy for Cronje to set a field to.Frustrating Vadher, he nearly held onto a great caught and bowledchance but the ball just popped out.Klusener unlucky not to get Vadher when the latter edged a fourjust wide of a diving Boucher got his man an over later with thehelp of a great diving catch by Boucher. Vadher out for 17 andKenya had lost their third wicket for 60 in the 23 rd over.With the run rate required going above 6 runs an over Tikolostarted to show some urgency. First dispatching a long hop fromAdams to the mid-wicket fence, and then chipped Klusener to thefence for three with Cronje just hauling it in at the rope.Klusener picked up his second wicket when Odumbe was trappedright in front for 3 and Kenya on 74/4.Adams at the other end was way off with his length. Bowling atleast one full toss an over and the odd short ball mixed with afew wides made it easy for the batsmen, especially for Tikolo.Good fielding by the South Africans helped to keep his bowlingfigures on the five runs per over. He got his first wicket in the32 nd over when Hitesh Modi tried to sweep but top edged toCronje taking a good diving catch at backward square leg. Modihad been at the crease for 16 balls scoring 10 runs to leaveKenya struggling at 95/6.Mpitsang, the 19 year old, playing in only his secondinternational, made a brief appearance before giving away 13 inhis third over when Tikolo and Odoyo were on the charge.Steven Tikolo brought up his 50 in the 36 th over with a smashingcover drive through the off field. An innings that grew instature the longer he stayed at the crease. With the run raterequired at just over seven runs to the over, and batting withThomas Odoyo, Kenya were still very much in this match and makingSouth Africa fight for a victory.Cronje realising his position replaced Adams and Mpitsang withKallis and Elworthy but it was first Tikolo who sent Elworthy tothe square leg and mid-wicket fence for two fours and then Odoyowho crashed Kallis to the long on fence and then tickled Elworthyto the fine leg fence.Adams was once more brought back but was still inclined to bowltoo short giving the batsmen plenty of time to play their shots.Cronje brought himself on in the 41 st over giving away 6 runs,including 2 wides, bowling from a shortened run-up. In his secondover he got a very lucky wicket, that of Tikolo, sweeping andbeing adjudged LBW to a ball that appeared to take a bottom edge.Tikolo had batted superbly and was out for 67 off 87 ballincluding 9 fours.Anthony Suji now joined Odoyo but was out three balls laterwithout scoring, caught by Rhodes off Adams bowling.Odoyo was left to attack Cronje and smashed him for two fours totake 13 off the 45 th over. Kenya needed 40 runs in the last fiveovers.With Kallis still having two overs and Pollock three overs tobowl, Adams was, for some reason, kept on and gave away 10 runsin the 46 th over that included two wides to finish his 10 overspell with 59/2.Pollock, now given the ball, came back on in the 47 th over andproceeded to join the other bowlers in giving the umpire someexercise with another wide. He did however get a charging Odoyoto edge a catch to Boucher. Odoyo had made his highest one-dayinternational score of 41 off 50 balls including five fours andKenya now in trouble at 195/8.It was up to Sheikh and Martin Suji to get Kenya home while SouthAfrica hopes were on Kallis and Pollock.Kallis bowled a very good, straight and full, 48 th over and wasrewarded with the wicket of Suji bowled by a reverse swinging legstump yorker without scoring. Kenya was now 196/9 with Pollock tobowl the 49 th over and still 25 runs short.It was all over first ball of the over with Sheikh hoisting himto the long on boundary where Klusener accepted the catch. Sheikhgone for nine off 12 balls and Kenya all out for 196.South Africa won by 24 runs with Pollock taking 3/10 in 8.1overs, and now has to wait for the India vs Zimbabwe match to seewho plays in the final.