Australia defeated South Africa 212 (Miller 101, Klaasen 47, Starc 3-34, Hazlewood 2-12) by three wickets with 215 for 7 (Head 62, Shamsi 2-42, Coetzee 2-47).
Aye. Australia is in the World Cup final once more.
But this wasn’t Ricky Ponting’s Invincibles or Steve Waugh’s monsters of a mentality. These guys were human. It was almost too late for them. They were barred entry by South Africa.
Strangely enough, the winning total was also the combined total that these two highly entertaining teams had achieved in what was, for a very long time, the best One-Day International ever played. 211.
Similar to the 1999 hit, this one too owed a lot to the spinners. Instead of really turning the ball, Keshav Maharaj and Tabraiz Shamsi were giving it more of a chance to think for itself. For 16 overs, they worked together, delivering a false shot every four balls, a dot every two balls, and nearly equal numbers of wickets (3 vs. 4) as boundaries.
Travis Head, Marnus Labuschagne, and—most importantly—Glenn Maxwell were the guys they fired for a duck.
Australia’s score was 137 to 5.
What brought this game to life?
In fifteen years of ODI cricket, South Africa’s 10-over score was the lowest. 18 versus 2. They scored that many runs in a single over 14 times going into this semifinal. Like a computer infected with a virus, the most formidable batting lineup of the competition was brought down. David Miller was the lone exception. On his end, he raised 101 for one. From theirs, the others fell to 100 for 9.
In the chase, things didn’t get any better either. It took 52 balls for South Africa to score their first boundary. Australia required a pair. In one delivery, Marco Jansen let 12 runs go away. Head reached his half-century after Reeza Hendricks dropped him on 40 and watched him knock a hat-trick of fours, one of which was a drop as well. In the fifteenth over, they had lost over half the score they had to defend.
All of the knockouts’ ghosts had come to Eden Gardens, complete with popcorn.
However, Shasmi instructed them to bleep all the way off. He was the one who gave Labuschagne a really embarrassing appearance in the 16th over by having an LBW call rejected despite the fact that his leg was right in front of the wicket. It was he who hit back Maxwell’s leg stump, a long hop that turned into what may have been this game’s most crucial delivery, slipping into the leg stump underneath the bat that had conjured a double-hundred to salvage a lost cause the previous week.
With joy, Shamsi circled the entire plaza. Temba Bavuma had greater foot control, but his eyes were burning brightly.
Josh Inglis entered the room just as the ghosts of previous knockouts started to scatter.
