Verdict

South Africa punished for failing to adapt

This was the match that could help salve the wounds of the past week



Ricky Ponting drives with authority on the way to a run-a-ball 91, but he said it was hard work © Getty Images
Just as Australia were beginning to re-establish control of the South African innings, Malcolm Speed, the ICC chief executive, poked his nose into the press tent. He was inspecting the facilities and pressing the flesh, and generally making all the right noises about the tiny Warner Park venue that has surpassed itself in terms of organisation and amenability over the past two weeks. As the hacks circled around him, eager for his thoughts on the latest developments in Jamaica, he turned simply to the middle, and suggested that, for today, we should all just watch the cricket.
This was the match that could help salve the wounds of the past week. The world No. 1 versus the world No. 2, the best two outfits on the planet providing the sort of spectacle that could at least remind us all why we are in the Caribbean. And for 75 breathless overs, they did just that. The boundaries poured in and the Party Stand throbbed in appreciation. "It was a different sort of spectacle," the beaten captain, Graeme Smith, said, "but I think people enjoyed their day."
It was, for as long as South Africa remained in the hunt, entertainment as rich as any yet witnessed in this tournament. After all the mutterings about the size of the ground, the big-hitting was about as much of a surprise as a Christmas present in a wrapping-paper drought, but given the events of 12 months ago, when Australia posted 434 and lost at Johannesburg, it seemed almost like watching an inverted form of the game.
Let's face it, how often in world cricket has a side won the toss and fielded, with the vain ambition of limiting their opponents to 350? Not even The Netherlands and Scotland had been that pessimistic when given a similar chance to use the early "conditions", as they are euphemistically known in these parts. During the opening stage of Australia's innings, while Matthew Hayden was bringing out the bully in his strokeplay, South Africa's bowlers seemed to be indulging in rope-a-dope tactics. Taking as many hits as possible to draw the sting out of the onslaught.
Up to a point it worked because, having clubbed his tournament-record century, Hayden gave his wicket away cheaply, as did Adam Gilchrist before him, and by Ricky Ponting's own admission later, he and Michael Clarke were unexpectedly ponderous at the start of their 161-run stand for the third wicket. "I thought we could have got a few more, but we just couldn't get the ball to the boundary," Ponting said. It was a strange failing seeing as even the most delicate nudges through the gaps were hurtling across a billiard-table outfield.
The end result looks like an old-fashioned Australia v South Africa hammering, not least the capitulation of the tail, but the reality was anything but. South Africa's demise was set in motion by two freakish set-backs - firstly when AB de Villiers was run-out from the boundary's edge by Shane Watson's direct hit; and secondly when Graeme Smith, on whose willpower so much of South Africa's momentum rests, was forced from the crease with cramp.
"It was a cricket reason, nothing else," Smith said when asked whether South Africa had bottled it again on the big stage, and to be fair it was hard to disagree. They did, however, aid and abet their downfall with what their own journalists admitted was intransigence typical of their countrymen. There seemed to be no flexibility of thinking, no adaptation to meet the demands of the chase.


Graeme Smith, who was in great touch until struck by cramps, did not believe the team seized under pressure © AFP
When de Villiers the boy racer fell with Smith still standing solid on 65 not out, they sent in Jacques Kallis instead of Herschelle Gibbs. Kallis is a man who is renowned for killing momentum so as to re-establish it in his own image, while Gibbs is a man who not only thwacked six sixes in an over on this very ground last week, but who creamed the Australians for 175 of the very, very best in Johannesburg.
And when Gibbs came and went with 158 still needed, out came Ashwell Prince to partner the stonewalling Kallis, instead of Mark Boucher, a man with a 21-ball fifty under his belt already in this tournament. The batting order that the captains signed up to when exchanging team-sheets in the morning was not a legally binding document, but the team think-tank did not seem to grasp that.
Ponting said afterwards that he hadn't been surprised by the way that Kallis had compiled his 48 from 63 balls. "That's pretty much the tempo of most of his one-day innings," he said. "He's more of a worker and a grinder of the ball than a lot of the other players in his side. He's a class player in both forms of the game, but the tempo of his innings probably wasn't what they needed."
It was as close to a damning indictment as he was willing to get, although Ponting didn't spare himself from criticism either. "I was a bit slow getting off the mark and moving today as well," he said, having made a strangely sluggish 91 from 91 balls. "Some guys made it look easy, others had to work."
Ponting would not admit it, but he was a relieved man at the end of it all. In Australia's last two matches against meaningful opposition, they had failed to defend scores of 336 for 4 at Auckland and 346 for 5 at Hamilton, and since December 2005, when they posted 331 for 7 against New Zealand at Christchurch, they had been involved in all four of the highest run-chases in one-day history, including of course the Wonder at the Wanderers - and they had lost the lot.
Now, instead, they have won their 20th consecutive World Cup match out of 21 (a run that includes one rather memorable tie) and done so in a manner that will imbue them with confidence for challenges to come. Clarke, their least settled batsman, overcame a ponderous start to bristle into top form, but it was the fillip given to the bowlers that will really stand them in good stead. They survived the early onslaught and emerged with their figures intact, not least Shaun Tait, who showed what sheer pace can do on the most placid of surfaces, and Brad Hogg, who was targeted by the South Africans but snuck through without damage.
And neither will Smith be too downcast by the turn of today's events. "It's disappointing to lose but we still had opportunities to win the game, which is good to know," he said. "Three-hundred-and-fifty was a gettable total out there, but we lost our way at times. But there's still so much cricket to be played in this tournament. The key is to win enough games to get into the semi-finals, and take it from there. We still know what we need to do."
The No. 1 and No. 2 in the world might just have swapped their positions for today's encounter, but with the exception of New Zealand and Sri Lanka, no other sides look such sure bets for those semis.

Andrew Miller is UK editor of Cricinfo