Hosts’ party piece wrecked by rain rule

Fleming, dropped when 53 off the bowling of Jacques Kallis, kept New Zealand’s run rate ticking over as the Kiwis went in search of the 307 needed for victory and under the D/L method the rate was what they needed to go for what seemed, at the start of the innings, to be an implausible victory. The final target New Zealand wanted was 229.

Yet, had the game been rained off at 25 overs the Kiwis would have walked it, such was the way Fleming and his partner Nathan Astle piled into the Safs bowling. That it lacked support was just too obvious and the Kiwis beat South Africa for the first time in a ODI game in South Africa to turn around the record.

It needed someone to take on the Safs, which Fleming did, much to the chagrin of a vociferous, parochial crowd which bellowed in anguish whenever the New Zealand captain scored a boundary. Even when he brought up his half-century it was greeted with a murmur of annoyance. And when West Indian umpire Steve Bucknor turned down the appeal for a catch behind offered by Astle, the howls of indignation could be heard down a cluttered Corlett Drive.

Astle was lured into a drive off a Shaun Pollock delivery and edged a catch to Mark Boucher when he had 25. The problem here was that Boucher had also put down Fleming and under the circumstances of the result of the match it was a costly error.

Typically, at times the infamous Wanderers bullring became cantankerous and disgruntled, displaying the ugly side of their chauvinistic pride. They are bad losers at times, almost as bad as the Australian supporters. A group were ejected from the ground in the game against Pakistan six days before when after chants about Shoaib Akhtar’s action they were reminded that perhaps Shane Warne was a ‘junkie’.

Naturally there were a few hard words said and the security were called in to quell the disturbance as the Pakistan innings was in the process of being systematically carved up. After a cooling off period they were allowed to watch the end of the game from a less inhabited part of the ground. Yet when the target and overs were reduced, the bullring came to its senses; there was even some approval of Fleming’s century. It is that sort of situation. Fleming’s innings kept New Zealand in the hunt and shut out the Safs, who, as Pollock admitted, need to sit down and have a serious look at their options.

Throughout their innings, as the Kiwis challenged South Africa’s run-making domination of the match and kept up with the runrate, which despite the floodlights, was being put together in murky conditions, the comparable Manhattans between the two teams was the difference between downtown Auckland and a string of houses along Sri Lanka’s south coast. It was always going to be a gamble. New Zealand needed to win to keep in the tournament although their ‘dark horse’ reputation was as much under pressure as were the South Africans who were second favourites behind the marauding Australians. As it is Sri Lanka now have a good chance of qualifying as the top team in Pool B, but who will follow them could be a tight squeeze. It could come down to net run rate and the performance of the two sides in the third place on the log.

If Fleming batted with flair and style and reached his fourth century with a flick off his hip, the innings of Gibbs was an unusual mix of caution and prudence as he did more to anchor the South African effort. It ws his highest score at the Wanderers and once the three-figure mark was dispatched, he tackled the Kiwis with explosive flamboyance. Compared to the centuries scored this tournament it ranks below that of Brian Lara’s against South Africa at Newlands in the opening game and Andrew Symmonds for Australia; for that matter it was not a controlled as that of Fleming’s. But by that stage, with the influence of the weather, it did not matter.