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Lara at his best, and Donald arrives Lara's bounce back, SA's return
Majestic Lara sends favourites packing
At the 1996 World Cup, West Indies were a team in freefall. One year earlier in the Caribbean, they had finally been deposed on home soil by the up-and-coming Australians, and with Richie Richardson dying on his feet as a leader (he would never play again after this tournament), the Empire was crumbling in an unseemly eruption of internecine warfare. Eleven days earlier at Pune, the squabbling giants had lost shamefully to the amateur cricketers of Kenya; now they faced the form team of the tournament, South Africa, in an quarter-final encounter that no-one truly believed they could win. Beware, however, the flashing blade of Brian Lara. In the decade that has since passed this has become one of the truisms of cricket, especially with West Indies in seemingly perpetual decline. But it was a warning that South Africa failed to heed, and on a cracked Karachi pitch, they made the single biggest mistake of the tournament - they omitted their spearhead, Allan Donald, in favour of an extra spinner, Paul Adams.
It was a decision that Lara greeted with glee. The fixture had already been loaded with extra baggage after Lara's controversial remarks at the end of the Kenya game, when he claimed he was happier to have lost to a team of blacks than a team of whites, but given an opportunity to atone for his cheap dismissal in that game, he needed no second bidding. He was cagey at
first, playing-and-missing against the seamers, but then milked Adams and Pat Symcox to glorious effect, as South Africa's ground fielding went to pieces under the pressure. Lara finished with 111 from 94 balls, with 16 crunching fours, before West Indies' own spinners, Jimmy Adams and Roger Harper, sealed the deal with 19 runs to spare.
Donald and South Africa arrive on the big stage
Allan Donald had already announced his arrival on the world stage two months earlier, taking 5 for 29 against India in South Africa's first match after nearly 22 years of isolation. His duel with Sachin Tendulkar had been especially eye-catching, but change was still the name of the game as South Africa headed across the Indian Ocean for their first World Cup. Clive Rice, in the twilight of a remarkable career, was controversially left out of the squad, and it was Kepler Wessels, who once donned the baggy green cap, that led the side out for their opening game against Australia. For South Africa, it was an especially poignant moment, because the SCG had hosted both their first and last Tests on Australian soil. The match couldn't have had a more dramatic start. Donald, face daubed with zinc cream and resembling an ancient warrior, ran in smoothly and produced a magnificent delivery that shaped away from Geoff Marsh. The thin edge was seen and heard by thousands, but umpire Brian Aldridge, from New Zealand, didn't respond to the vociferous South African appeal. Donald's first spell was a luckless one, but with Marsh barely able to time the ball off the square, and the fielding tigerish, the batsmen were never allowed to get away. Adrian Kuiper then struck twice in two deliveries, producing a peach to nail Allan Border, and by the time Donald returned, Australia were in disarray. He duly pushed them over the edge with some wonderfully controlled pace bowling. Tom Moody went leg before, the hamstrung Ian Healy hit one into the capacious hands of Brian McMillan, and Peter Taylor had little idea about the ball that messed up his stumps. Australia limped to 170 for 9 from their 49 overs, with Donald's 3 for 34 leading an impressive bowling effort.
Wessels and Peter Kirsten knocked off the runs with more than three overs to spare, and after all those years away, South Africa were back on the big stage that they had been forced to vacate after the triumphs of the Van der Merwe-Bacher years.
© Cricinfo
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