User:JavaHurricane/sandbox/1999 Cricket World Cup 2nd semi-final

The second semifinal of the 1999 Cricket World Cup was a One Day International cricket match played between Australia and South Africa at the Edgbaston Cricket Ground in Birmingham on 17 June 1999.

Background
After 21 years of virtual isolation due to apartheid, South Africa returned to international cricket with a short tour of India in 1991. The following year, the team made the semi-finals of the 1992 Cricket World Cup, where they lost to eventual runners-up England; 13 balls were left in the match for South Africa to get 22 runs to win, when the umpires halted the match due to rain. The rain cleared up within 12 minutes, leading to a loss of two overs, and, in accordance with the "rain rule" designed for the tournament, South Africa's target was revised to an impossible 21 of one ball. South Africa also lost the third and decisive Test against Australia at Adelaide, thanks to the efforts of Steve Waugh and Shane Warne, in 1994, preventing a series win for South Africa. For the next five years, in both Tests and One Day Internationals (ODIs), South Africa regularly lost to Australia in pressure situations, especially due to Warne and Waugh. South Africa defeated Australia in the first finals in the Australian Tri-Series of both 1993–94 and 1997–98, in the latter series winning all four group stage matches against Australia, only to lose 1–2 each time. While Wisden described the South African team of 1997–98 as "without doubt, the best team of the one-day summer", it was Australia who won. During the 1997–98 series, Waugh, recently appointed as Australia's one-day captain, reportedly said that South Africa "had a tendency to choke under pressure". South Africa's victory over Australia in the gold medal match of the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur convinced Bob Woolmer, South Africa's coach, that Australia's psychological hold over South Africa had been broken, but his view was not widely shared.

Super Sixes encounter
In the 1999 Cricket World Cup, South Africa won six of its first seven matches, losing only to Zimbabwe, while Australia struggled initially, losing to New Zealand and Pakistan in the first group stage, before coming back strongly in the Super Sixes stage, notching up victories over India and Zimbabwe. Four days before the semi-final at Edgbaston, the two teams met in the last match of the Super Sixes phase, at Headingley in Leeds. While South Africa had already qualified for the semi-finals, the match was a must-win for Australia to qualify. South Africa won the toss and chose to bat first on a bouncy pitch, with Herschelle Gibbs making South Africa's only century of the tournament, while Lance Klusener made a 21-ball 36 as South Africa added 47 runs in the last five overs to finish with 271 for 7 in the allotted 50 overs. Australia began their chase poorly, with Adam Gilchrist, Mark Waugh and Damien Martyn falling cheaply to leave Australia struggling at 48 for 3, when Steve Waugh walked out. Waugh, along with Ricky Ponting, began to score quickly, and brought up a half-century in 47 balls. On 56, he flicked a ball to Gibbs at midwicket off the bowling of Klusener; in his anxiety to celebrate by throwing the ball upwards, Gibbs dropped the catch. Thereafter, Waugh is alleged to have told Gibbs, "You've just dropped the World Cup"; both players have since denied that these words were spoken. Waugh went on to make an unbeaten 120, winning the man of the match award, as Australia went on to win the match with two balls to spare. The victory not only allowed Australia to qualify for the semi-finals, but also ensured that they finished above South Africa in the Super Sixes points table on net run rate; this detail would prove critical in the semi-final between the two teams.

In a press conference on the eve of the semi-final, Waugh denied calling the South Africans as chokers, and that he had said that "they couldn't play well under pressure." The remark upset Woolmer, who asked journalists to focus on South Africa's record; South Africa had won 76 of the completed ODIs it had played over the last four years, losing only 20. Seven of the defeats, however, had come in 18 matches against Australia.

Australian innings
After winning the toss, South Africa's captain Hansie Cronje chose to bowl first. Cronje's decision was validated in the first over, when Shaun Pollock dismissed Mark Waugh for a duck off a short ball. After a slow start, Ricky Ponting, the new batsman, began to score more quickly, hitting a six and a four off consecutive deliveries from Steve Elworthy, before losing his wicket to Allan Donald in the latter's first over; Donald also got the wicket of Darren Lehmann, who edged an outswinger to Mark Boucher, the wicket-keeper, in the same over. Adam Gilchrist, the other opener, was caught by Donald at third man off the bowling of Jacques Kallis, to leave Australia four down for 68, with two new batsmen, Steve Waugh and Michael Bevan, at the crease. With three wickets having fallen in the preceding four overs, and only one recognised batsman, Tom Moody, yet to come, Waugh and Bevan chose to slowly rebuild the innings. After taking a mid-innings timeout, the two initially batted defensively, adding eight runs in 6.4 overs after a couple of early boundaries. Both Waugh and Bevan accelerated thereafter; Waugh finished with 56 runs, while Bevan's 65 was the highest individual score of the match. Waugh and Moody both fell in the same over to Pollock with the score at 158, before Bevan and Warne added 49 together to help Australia cross 200. Pollock and Donald picked up the remaining four wickets to limit Australia to 213. Pollock dismissed Bevan on the last ball of the innings to complete his five-wicket haul.

South African innings
During the break between the two innings, the sun came out, and the pitch, which had assisted the pace bowlers during the first innings, changed in character. With the ball no longer swinging much, South Africa began briskly, scoring 43 runs without losing a wicket in the first 10 overs, with Gibbs scored six boundaries during this time. Waugh then brought on Warne, who had struggled during the last few months, to ball. In his second over, Warne bowled Gibbs, triggering a collapse; in his next over, Warne bowled Gary Kirsten and had Cronje caught at slip for a duck; however, replays showed that Cronje had hit the ball with his boot, not the bat. Later, Daryll Cullinan was run out for a 30-ball six by Bevan, leaving South Africa at 61/4. Kallis, who was playing with a stomach strain, rebuilt the innings with a partnership of 84 with Jonty Rhodes. The two initially played defensively to see off Warne, resulting in a 17-over period during which no boundary was scored, with the required run rate rising above a run a ball in the 28th over. After Mark Waugh and Moody began to ball, the batsmen gradually accelerated; after Rhodes hit Waugh for six in the 40th over, South Africa needed 70 runs to win in the last 10 overs. Rhodes fell shortly thereafter, with Bevan taking a running catch at deep-square leg after Rhodes tried to play a pull shot off Paul Reiffel.

In the next three-and-half overs, Kallis and Pollock, the new batsman, scored 16 runs, before the latter hit a six and a four off consecutive balls in Warne's last over – the only boundaries scored off Warne during the innings. Warne dismissed Kallis during his final over, bringing Klusener, who had been in excellent form throughout the tournament, to the crease. Pollock was bowled for 20 by Damien Fleming; Mark Boucher, the next batsman, struggled due to pressure, using too many balls to bring Klusener on strike, before falling to Glenn McGrath in the 49th over for five. Steve Elworthy then brought Klusener back on to the strike before being run out at the non-striker's end; a nervous Allan Donald, the last batsman, replaced Elworthy at the non-striker's end, with South Africa needing 16 runs from eight balls; in his World Cup diary, Steve Waugh noted that he felt that this was the only moment Australia were ahead in the game. The following ball, Klusener hit a full toss from McGrath down the ground towards Reiffel, who misjudged the ball and parried it over the boundary for six runs. Klusener took a single off the last ball of the over to retain the strike.

With nine needed from the final over, to be bowled by Fleming, Klusener hit the first two balls for four each; Donald, in his autobiography, described the two boundaries as the hardest-hit shots he had ever seen. With South Africa now needing only one run from the remaining four balls to win, Waugh brought all the fielders into the infield to prevent the single. On the third ball of the over, Klusener hit the ball to Darren Lehmann at mid-off; Donald, who had instinctively backed up a long way, was almost run out at the non-striker's end, but Lehmann's throw missed the stumps by centimetres. On the fourth ball, the last ball of the match, Klusener hit Fleming's yorker down the ground and started running; Donald, however, did not run at first and remained at the non-striker's end. Mark Waugh collected the ball and threw it towards the stumps at the non-striker's end, but missed. Donald only saw Klusener running at this moment and, having dropped his bat, began to run for the striker's end. With Klusener having reached the crease at the non-striker's end, Fleming collected the ball and threw it towards wicket-keeper Gilchrist, who threw down the stumps at the striker's end, with Donald well short of the crease. The match had ended in a tie, and Australia qualified for the final due to having finished above South Africa in the Super Sixes stage.