Brilliant Waugh leads Australia into semi-finals

HEADINGLEY (South Africa won toss): Australia beat South Africa by five wickets

THE immovable object looked for all the world as though it was about to be unceremoniously swept from the path of the irresistible force at Headingley yesterday afternoon, but when it comes to batting for Australia, Steve Waugh often is immovable. Joining Ricky Ponting with his side apparently facing an embarrassing defeat at 48 for three in the twelfth over, Waugh conjured the second exciting finish of the weekend from the last of the Super Six matches and, in one of the most inspired innings of his life, drove Australia into the semi-finals of the World Cup by an indomitable mixture of talent and willpower.

Another devastating piece of hitting by Lance Klusener towards the end of the South African innings had set Australia the formidable task of making 272 to win, 18 more than anyone else had successfully chased in the tournament so far, and this on a hard Headingley pitch that occasionally bounced high enough for the ball to rap the fingers. Waugh the elder had scored only one hundred in 241 previous one-day innings for Australia; however, he has not often got in as early as the 12th over and by his own brilliance and character he made up for Australian bowling that he described as "pretty ordinary".

He scored his 120 not out off only 110 balls, giving himself room to swing his arms towards the ball and to hit it repeatedly through and over the off-side field off both front and back foot. His most astonishing shot, a bucolic swing over long-on off Steve Elworthy at the start of the final ten overs, with 66 still needed, ended with Waugh falling back onto the seat of his trousers. But the ball was high in the crowd by then and Australia on their way to a semi-final reprise against the same South African side at Edgbaston on Thursday.

They won in the end with two balls to spare, having needed 23 from the last four overs bowled by Donald and Pollock. Michael Bevan, after lending straight-batted support to his captain in a fifth-wicket partnership of 73, had been caught at mid-wicket in the 46th over and not all Tom Moody's runs came from the middle of the bat. Fifteen was still required from the last two overs, but to the wild delight of the Australian team, they came, by strike, scramble, slice and snick.

Australia had had one great advantage, the fact that South Africa had decided not to risk Jacques Kallis, their outstanding all-rounder, in the hope that the strain in his lower abdomen would be sufficiently healed for him to be able to bowl in the semi-final for which they had already qualified. It left them, however, without a fifth man who had bowled regularly in the tournament. Nicky Boje, with only one previous expensive five-over spell against India behind him, ran out Mark Waugh from mid-on after a fatal hesitation with Ponting in the sixth over, but the left-arm spinner was punished by Waugh and Ponting for 29 in three overs and Hansie Cronje was obliged to bowl seven overs himself. He varied his pace intelligently and took a wicket in the 46th over to keep the match boiling, but the 79 scored off himself and Boje was one of the decisive factors in Australia's extraordinary victory.

Another was the moment when Herschelle Gibbs, having scored a potentially matchwinning hundred in South Africa's innings, threw away Waugh's wicket in a moment of premature celebration. Waugh was 56 not out at the start of the 31st over - and Australia were 152 for three - when he flicked Klusener to mid-wicket where Gibbs took a simple catch but in the same instant tried to throw the ball upwards in triumph. The umpires decided that the fielder had not got the ball under proper control and Waugh was reprieved by a moment of foolishness.

Gibbs will learn the hard lesson, no doubt. He had played a fine innings, wasting no opportunity to flick boundaries off his legs to various parts of the onside boundary after Cronje had won the toss. There were some bruises for both Gibbs and Gary Kirsten as the new ball bounced nastily at times, but they put on 45 before Kirsten sliced to backward point and South Africa successfully experimented with Daryll Cullinan as their fourth number three of the tournament. He hit some fine shots, but Shane Warne has been his master in the past and, getting some turn on a pitch with something in it for everyone, he troubled both Cullinan and Gibbs. The crowd jeered him at the start of his spell and cheered him at the end.

Jonty Rhodes gave Gibbs his usual enterprising assistance before Glenn McGrath, who had bowled too short with the new ball, yorked the century maker to usher in Klusener. Once more this little bull of a man hit the ball with brutal power and when Warne put him down in the 49th over, when he had made only 22 of his 36 off 21 balls, it looked likely to be expensive.

But Australia simply rebound from their occasional setbacks and they did so magnificently this time. The prize was a semi-final to savour and the prospect of a final at Lord's on Sunday.

The alternative was an early trip home after 4½ months of travel in the case of Waugh and those who played with him in the Test series in the Caribbean. As he said: "This is a side with a lot of character and they showed it today."

South Africa's narrow failure yesterday, and New Zealand's successful chase against India on Saturday, means that Zimbabwe can go no farther. Four of the five best sides in the tournament are through to the knockout stage and, however belatedly, everyone with the merest interest in cricket is talking about the World Cup now.

Back to current article