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| March 5, 2003 | Wednesday | Muharram 1, 1424 |
SA pay heavy price for calculated miss
DURBAN (South Africa), March 4: South African captain Shaun Pollock awoke on Tuesday heartbroken by a calculation error that knocked the hosts out of the World Cup (partially reported in Tuesday’s edition).
The communication breakdown was the final nail in a disastrous campaign for Pollock’s men, who were eliminated after the first round when their rain-hit match against Sri Lanka ended in a tie here on Monday night.
Pollock admitted the batsmen at the crease, Mark Boucher and Lance Klusener, did not have the right information when rain abandoned the match five overs early.
Play was halted when South Africa were on 229 for six after 45 overs, chasing a Sri Lankan total of 268 for nine.
According to the Duckworth-Lewis method used in rain-affected games, South Africa’s score was “par” for the match which meant the game was tied.
“The message that was portrayed was 229,” admitted Pollock, who said 12th man Nicky Boje was on his way out with the chart containing the right information when he was stopped by the umpires.
“We can’t look at that and worry about it. We didn’t know the game was going to finish after that,” he said.
“If you lose a wicket, all of a sudden the score goes up. There was a lot that went on after that ball before they came off.
“If they had started the next over and we had got one off then we could have been through. There are a lot of ifs and buts. It’s very disappointing.
“We were trying to keep them updated as much as possible but at the end of the day you can’t judge when the rain’s going to come.”
Neither Pollock nor coach Eric Simons could explain exactly how the communications failure was allowed to happen despite rain falling for some 15 minutes before the umpires stopped play.
Simons said: “In that situation, you start playing against three things. You lose a wicket, you’re playing with a Duckworth-Lewis total, you’re playing with an end total.
“It’s a very tough call in that situation. You sometimes don’t want the batsmen to know the Duckworth-Lewis situation because they start playing shots they shouldn’t be playing, like the shot Boucher hit for six which he wouldn’t have played in the normal course of events.
“Whether it (the calculation sheet) should have been out there, I don’t know. I suppose in hindsight it could have been been.”
Sri Lankan captain Sanath Jayasuriya, meanwhile, knew exactly where his team stood because he had a piece of paper with the Duckworth-Lewis calculations in his pocket.
Jayasuriya said he knew before Muralitharan bowled what turned out to be the last ball that the scores were tied.
“The last ball he bowled was very good. We wanted a dot ball.”
Pollock admitted his team had failed to play to their full potential but said they had been dogged by bad luck in the key games against the West Indies, which they lost by three runs, and New Zealand, which was decided on the Duckworth-Lewis method, before Monday’s game.
“It’s not ideal to come into your last game needing to win to stay in the tournament,” Pollock said.
“It’s very disappointing. I don’t think we got what we deserved. I didn’t think our performances were that bad. Probably we weren’t as dominating as we have been in the past.”
Asked whether he would reconsider his position as captain, Pollock said: “Not at all.”
Scoreboard
SRI LANKA:
M.S. Atapattu c sub b Hall 124
S.T. Jayasuriya run out 16
H.P. Tillekeratne c Boucher b Kallis 14
D.P.M. Jayawardene c Boucher b Hall 1
P.A. de Silva c Smith b Ntini 73
R.P. Arnold b Pollock 8
K.C. Sangakkara c Pollock b Kallis 6
W.P.U.J.C. Vaas run out 3
M. Muralitharan b Kallis 4
C.R.D. Fernando not out 1
EXTRAS (LB-2, W-11, NB-2) 18
TOTAL (for nine wkts, 50 overs) 268
FALL OF WKTS: 1-37, 2-77, 3-90, 4-242, 5-243, 6-258, 7-261, 8-266, 9-268.
DID NOT BAT: P.W. Gunaratne.
BOWLING: Pollock 10-1-48-1 (1nb, 2w); Ntini 10-0-49-1 (2nb, 3w); Zondeki 6-0-35-0 (3w); Kallis 10-0-41-3 (1w); Hall 10-0-62-2 (2nb, 1w); Klusener 4-0-31-0 (1nb, 1w).
SOUTH AFRICA:
G.C. Smith c Gunaratne b de Silva 35
H.H. Gibbs b Muralitharan 73
G. Kirsten b de Silva 8
J.H. Kallis b Jayasuriya 16
H.H. Dippenaar b Jayasuriya 8
M.V. Boucher not out 45
S.M. Pollock run out 25
L. Klusener not out 1
EXTRAS (LB-4, W-12, NB-2) 18
TOTAL (for six wkts, 45 overs) 229
FALL OF WKTS: 1-65, 2-91, 3-124, 4-149, 5-149, 6-212.
DID NOT BAT: A.J. Hall, M. Ntini, M. Zondeki.
BOWLING: Vaas 7-1-33-0 (1nb); Gunaratne 6-0-26-0; Fernando 1-0-14-0 (1nb); de Silva 8-0-36-2 (1w); Arnold 4-0-16-0 (1w); Muralitharan 9-0-51-1 (1w); Jayasuriya 10-0-49-2 (3w).
RESULT: Match tied under Duckworth/Lewis method.
UMPIRES: S.A. Bucknor (West Indies) and S. Venkataraghavan (India).
TV UMPIRE: P. Willey (England).
MATCH REFEREE: C.H. Lloyd (West Indies).
MAN-OF-THE-MATCH: Marvan Atapattu. —AFP
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