Near perfect Kiwi show, curious errors on field — even Mike Horn’s motivational presence could not help South Africa in ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 Semi-Final
Near perfect NZ show, curious errors on field — even Mike Horn's presence could not help SA
South Africa erred in selection, they erred on the field, and ultimately lost to side playing extraordinary cricket. Even Mike Horn’s inspirational endeavours could not help them overcome the New Zealanders. And rain did not really determine the result. Arunabha Sengupta looks back at the fascinating semi-final and concludes that the better team won fair and square.
Mike Horn is largely considered the greatest modern explorer the world has seen.
Leaving Gabon, he crossed the Atlantic Ocean by trimaran; travelled from Brazil to Ecuador by foot, bicycle and canoe, traversing the Amazon jungle and the Andes; crossed the Pacific Ocean to Indonesia; journeyed through the Borneo and Sumatra jungles by foot and sailboat; and then continued by trimaran across the Indian Ocean, across the African continent back to Gabon, 18 months after he had started out. Top 10 batsmen in ICC Cricket World Cup 2015
He has also been around the Arctic Circle — once again without motorised transport. He has walked across Siberia for one and a half years — alone. And when he teamed up with Norwegian explorer Borge Ousland, they became the first men to travel without dogs or motor to the North Pole during the permanent darkness of Arctic winter.
It is more than a bit ironic that the team that Horn had been motivating slipped on an hour’s rain in Auckland and thus ended their journey of dreams.
I admit that is a cruel way of putting it.
If Mike Horn is not inspirational, no one in the world is. As his former Media Directions Manager put it, “His beard has experienced more than a lesser man’s body.” I have interviewed him, I can vouch for it.
So can the Indians who, a driven lot themselves, were spurred to new heights by the same man during the 2011 World Cup. So can the South Africans themselves, who had this man accompanying them on an expedition to the Alps, performing bonding exercises. Soon they had displaced England as the No. 1 ranked Test-playing nation. And then there are the Mumbai Indians, they can vouch for Horn as well. Top 10 bowlers in ICC Cricket World Cup 2015
Besides, there was indeed a lot of poetic leeway exercised when we attributed South Africa’s loss to the rain. No, this time they were not done in by the fickleness of weather or fate.
In 1992, the rain rule had been inane. But, South Africa had themselves erred by bowling their overs slowly. And there had been no guarantee that, had the skies not opened up, Brian McMillan and Dave Richardson would get the 22 runs from 13 balls. McMillan was capable of a few lusty blows, but was by no means a great hitter. And Richardson was not known for spectacular hitting anyway. Those were way before the Twenty20 days when 22 from two overs and one ball was a rather steep ask. But, we can perhaps still sympathise with them being robbed an honest swipe at the equation.
In 2003, the Rule had been way better but the South Africans had misread the tables.
This time around, the Rain Rule was the best we could possibly have.
Forget the off the cuff reactions after the game, this was the fairest target revision method that exists at the moment. And the argument that AB de Villiers would have taken the score way beyond 350 had he batted till the full 50 overs does not hold water. He could have been out the very next ball. And this New Zealand team was perfectly capable of overhauling 350-plus target, especially against two half-fit opening bowlers.
The rain could have been handled better. With one full reserve day and functioning floodlights, perhaps the match need not have been shortened at all because of one hour’s disruption. But South Africa did not lose due to the weather. They lost to a side that has played the best cricket in the tournament so far. Top 10 wicketkeepers in ICC Cricket World Cup 2015
The better side won
They lost to a side whose batsmen have produced one champion performance after another, in turns by Brendon McCullum, by Kane Williamson, by Martin Guptill, by Corey Anderson, by Grant Elliott, even by Ross Taylor, as and when the situation demanded.
They lost to a side whose leading bowler has produced over after over of exceptional swing, who managed to keep even the South Africans in check for most of the early part of their innings. They lost to a team whose veteran spinner has not only bowled with every subtle guile acquired over the years, but who has come out to deal a hefty blow when required, and has leapt like a man half his age to pull of a blinder on the boundary line.
They lost to a side playing fantastic cricket, a side that has deserved to win every match so far.
They lost to a side who have played as a perfectly functioning team.
In contrast, all through the tournament South Africa was overly dependent on the genius of de Villiers. Apart from the captain only Faf du Plessis managed a decent show against the Test playing nations.
In the bowling department, Imran Tahir was exceptional, but the famed fast bowling of the Protean outfit was rather lukewarm. Dale Steyn, struggling with his fitness, looked less than threatening. Vernon Philander struck only four times, and gave away far too many. Yet, this was the preferred opening attack for the crunch match. The selectors voted for Philander rather than the exceptional Kyle Abbott. And McCullum rejoiced in hitting him for 18 off his first over. Top 10 fielders in ICC Cricket World Cup 2015
Compared to New Zealand, they have indeed been the inferior team in the tournament.
Motivational talk, even by Mike Horn, can only do so much. The South Africans gave it their all, but they made many mistakes. New Zealand made fewer, much fewer.
The mistakes
The Proetas erred in selection, choosing Philander over Abbott.
And then they erred in the field. The South African fielding unit wilted into a butter fingered bunch as the heat turned on in the evening. De Villiers bungled his attempt of running out Elliott. De Kock missed him again when he failed to collect a fairly accurate throw and hit the stumps with his gloves. And then JP Duminy ran into Farhaan Behardien as he got under the ball, and once again the batsman who got lucky was the hero of the day, Elliott.
On two occasions Vettori swung, missed, and scampered as the ball thudded into the keeper’s gloves. Twice de Kock underhanded his return and missed the stumps at the striker’s end, twice Steyn picked up with another opportunity to throw the stumps down, and twice he missed the wickets at the bowler’s end.
And then with a boundary required to decide the match, Steyn bowled a length ball.
It is not that the run of luck had gone totally against South Africa. During the Protean innings, Williamson made the grave errror of dropping de Villiers early on. The fact of the matter is South Africans replied with far more mistakes.
It was a fascinating game of cricket, just what the World Cup had been crying for. But in the end the better team won, and in a manner that was fair and square.
It is seven out of seven now in that infamous saga of South African World Cup derailments. Even without taking recourse to the C-word, we have to conclude that the recurrences hint at problems deeper and darker than meets the eye.
Perhaps not all can be blamed on unconquered tension, of fantastic cricketers losing their nerves as stakes grew higher and higher. This conclusion is rather hasty, crude and false.
Perhaps the root causes go far deeper for this nation with a dark past and tumultous present.
There is much to be learned from the myriad ways in which talented people sometimes fail. Perhaps these causes need to be unearthed, dissected, analysed, and overcome.
And perhaps only then will Mike Horn’s august presence make a difference. ICC Cricket World Cup 2015: Complete Coverage
(Arunabha Sengupta is cricket historian and Chief Cricket Writer at CricketCountry. He writes about the history and the romance of the game, punctuated often by opinions about modern day cricket, while his post-graduate degree in statistics peeps through in occasional analytical pieces. The author of three novels, he can be followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/senantix)