UNPRECEDENTED
FEAT
LIGHTS UP BRAND NEW STADIUM
LIGHTS UP BRAND NEW STADIUM
South Africa v
Sri Lanka • Providence Stadium,
28 March 2007
The first international match in the Providence
Stadium, just outside Georgetown, the capital of Guyana, produced one of the most
exciting matches in World Cup history. With the weather uncertain as well,
Mahela Jayawardene took a brave call by electing to bat.
Sri Lanka lost wickets regularly with Charl
Langeveldt forcing Sanath Jayasuriya and Jayawardene to hole out. Then Herschelle
Gibbs flew into the stumps Jonty Rhodes-style to run out Chamara Silva. At 98
for five in the 25th over, South Africa were on top. Tillakaratne Dilshan and
Russel Arnold put together a fighting 97-run stand off 130 deliveries. Dilshan
(58) fell at 195 off the penultimate delivery of the 46th over, and then
followed a veritable procession. In their bid to rev up the scoring rate, the
Sri Lankans swung their bats, only to hit steepling catches. The beneficiary on
three occasions was Langeveldt who returned with neat figures of five for 39
off his 10 overs. The last five Sri Lankan wickets fell for 14 runs in the
space of 17 balls.
Chaminda Vaas struck back immediately, bringing
in the last delivery of his first over sharply to castle Abraham de Villiers
for a duck. Graeme Smith and Jacques Kallis settled into a long partnership.
The skipper looked in ominous form, raising a-run-a-ball fifty. Muttiah
Muralitharan had him caught behind but by then he had cracked 7 fours besides a
six off Chaminda Vaas over long-off. Gibbs helped Kallis put on 65 runs.
Magical Murali took a smart return catch to send back Gibbs, and then trapped
Mark Boucher leg-before first ball. Justin Kemp scratched around for a while
before perishing but Shaun Pollock helped Kallis take the Proteas to the
doorstep of victory.
Four runs were required off 32 deliveries with
five wickets in hand when Lasith Malinga’s pin-point yorker crashed into
Pollock’s stumps. Next ball, Andrew Hall lobbed another slower one into the
hands of Upul Tharanga in the covers. That was the end of ‘Slinger’ Malinga’s
over. Just one run was scored off the next over but that ensured that Kallis
would face Malinga’s hat-trick ball. The perky little paceman steamed in, his
mop of ringlets bouncing up and down, and with his low round arm put the ball
in just the right place. Kallis edged it into the gloves of Kumar Sangakkara.
There was frenzy all around as Daryl Harper pointed his finger skywards. It was
the fifth hat-trick in the World Cup following the feats of Chetan Sharma,
Saqlain Mushtaq, Chaminda Vaas and Brett Lee.
Malinga was now a man possessed. He produced
another yorker that whistled into Makhaya Ntini’s stumps, achieving a feat that
no other bowler had done before in international cricket – four wickets in four
balls. It was now 207 for nine. The next 11 deliveries produced just a single.
With two runs required for a win, Robin Peterson edged Malinga to the third-man
boundary. The tension released, Peterson went delirious as he sprinted towards
the pavilion, knocking the stumps at the non-striker’s end with a wave of his
bat. There was just a tinge of regret as Malinga relived those pulsating
moments: “The old ball was reverse-swinging and I got the wickets. I tried to
get five-in-a-row, but unfortunately couldn’t. I think we didn’t have enough
runs.” Even so, he nearly achieved the impossible.
Sri Lanka :
209 all out (49.3 overs)
South Africa : 212 for 9 wickets (48.2 overs)
(Author Indra Vikram Singh can be contacted
on email singh_iv@hotmail.com).
The
Big Book of World Cup Cricket 1975-2011
ISBN
978-81-901668-4-3
Distributed
in India by Variety Book Depot, Connaught Place, New Delhi, Phones + 91 11
23417175, 23412567
Available
in leading bookshops, and online on several websites.
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