It’s rain again as SA get knocked out

What was especially cruel was that the rain should fall just as South Africa, chasing 269, were clawing their way back into an absorbing match and leave them one run short. That run could have been the one Mark Boucher was aiming for off what turned out to be the last ball of the match; he took a mighty heave but missed.

Or it could have been the run which Shaun Pollock never completed, a brilliant piece of gathering by Muralitharan .

With the hosts on 229/6, all the drama of the semi-final against England in Sydney in 1992 was revived as the examination of the Duckworth/Lewis calculation resulted in a tied result and the end of the dream.

It seemed, for a while, that the Proteas could actually turn it around after some tight, accurate bowling had kept them on a leash. Lance Klusener walked on after Pollock’s dismissal and looked set to hit out. Indeed, the target then of 40 off 30 balls would have favoured the Proteas.

So the tournament continues without the hosts, who’d never looked convincing right from the first match when they were beaten by the West Indies. They subsequently lost to the other two big teams in the group, New Zealand and Sri Lanka, and only notched up wins over the minnows — Bangladesh, Kenya, Canada.

The team had been racked by factionalism and the ghost of Hansie Cronje the team’s decline was marked especially by the fading powers of Allan Donald and the unfortunate injury to Jonty Rhodes.