South Africa's nemesis. Bangladesh's historic win. Netherland's busted start. Zimbabwe's slippery escape
Day 9. World Cup.
Why does it always rain on them
South Africa’s Quinton de Kock was standing in the rain, waiting for someone to calculate DLS. Temba Bavuma was looking on as Richard Ngarava slipped over just after he delivered his last ball of the over. They both watched as he was taken from the field by the physio. They had to wait for a free hit, that was on the last ball of the over, as players started to move. They had the Zimbabwean time-wasting as well. Often justified, as the towels they were using to try the ball were wet themselves. There was also a DRS call, in which de Kock thought he was going to be out, so had half left the field, and then had to come back on to face the next ball.
South Africa did everything they could to win this match, they bowled through the rain, tried to chase the total down inside the five overs and dominated Zimbabwe with the ball until it became soap.
Even the umpires pushed that further than they should have, it was clear that game should have been called way before it was. Those were not conditions fit for a world cup game. I am not sure you should play a beer match in that. Australian pitches in the wet like that get real tricky as well, because they are so slippery. They can be hard enough to run on when there is no water on them. If you miss your spikes even a little you go over. And we saw two Zimbabwean players go over.
Whether that was rain or time wasting doesn’t matter. This game was only still being played because it was so clear South Africa were near to winning. And even then it was too wet. The umpires tried to get a result, but there is little you can do when it comes to South Africa and rain at World Cups. The rain is going to win.
In 1992 South Africa were chasing an improbable (for that era) 22 runs from 13 deliveries when it rained. When they came back out they total was moved lower, by one run, but suddenly they needed 22 runs off a single ball. It was made even more cricket by the fact South Africa had to go out and face that ball anyway with the new equation on the screen. This actually changed the playing conditions of cricket, and it’s why we started using the Duckworth Lewis method.
In 2015 South Africa had two rain effected games, one early against Pakistan that had little consequence, but of course they lost it. But then the semi final, with New Zealand clouds coming in South Africa won the toss and batted first. They actually still made quite a few runs, but the South African born Grant Elliott beat them in the end.
And who could forget 2003. The grandaddy of them all. Mark Boucher hits a piece of soap into the stands off Murali, and all South Africa need to do is score a single off the last ball. He turned it into the legside and didn’t even look for one. South Africa had misunderstood the DLS, and thought they just need to be at the total on the sheet, when actually to win they would have to be one past it. They blocked their way to a tie, and were dumped from their home tournament before the finals.
They have had many World Cup heartbreaks in the dry weather too. It isn’t even the only tie that kicked them out. But when the World Cup seems to rain the heaviest hit are the South Africans.
This washout is a guaranteed point from their total. Who knows what Zimbabwe would have done in a real game, but in this drowning match South Africa had all but won.
If Pakistan has a good tournament from here, South Africa need to be brilliant to make the semi finals from here. And this was the team that won four from five games last time, and still didn’t qualify.
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