1999 Cricket Semi-finals – Australia vs South Africa

In 1999 South Africa qualified for cricket world cup semi-finals and their match was against Australia. South Africa had some really good players like Jonty Rhodes, Herschelle Gibbs, Jacques Kallis, Allan Donald, Shaun Pollock to name the few. They were considered the best fielding side. Till date we give examples of Jonty Rhodes as a fielder. One wicket was left South Africa needed 1 run but the match tied. That run out even after so many years is still fresh in my mind. I was quite young at that time. There was no concept of super over at that time and based on the previous performance during the tournament Australia qualified for the finals

I still have no idea what was going in Allan Donald’s mind. He was at the non striker end and Lance Klusener made a call started running but Allan Donald was standing still. By the time he finally decided to run it was too late and he was run out.

On that day South Africa got the title of chokers as they choked at the end in getting that one winning run which could give them the opportunity to play their first world cup final match.

Unfortunately by 2023 also the South African team is not able to remove this tag. We may say that South Africa fought well but honestly they choked during the batting itself when their scorecard was 24/4 and in the first 10 overs they could only make 18 runs. The South African bowlers did give all their sweat but at the end Australia won.

Australia has qualified for yet another world cup final. When they started their campaign they lost few matches. Everyone kept saying this Australian team is not the same like the ones we have seen in past. Yet here they are defeating the team which finished second in the league matches.

South Africa could not take the revenge of 1999 world cup final. But India has a chance to take revenge of 2003 world cup final.

20 years later can team India defeat team Australia? India definitely has the advantage of being host nation. 19th November can India win the world cup title for 3rd time and create history?

Wishing team India all the best for the last and final game

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P.S. I have not mentioned Hansie Cronje as one of the good players from South Africa because of the match fixing charges against him

 

 

 

 

 

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