World’s best tournament team: Someone should bottle their secret and send it to Lord’s

Mitchell Starc celebrates Australia’s win at Eden Gardens. Picture: AFP.

The wait goes on; heartache again.

South Africa had been one of the teams of the tournament, carrying almost all before them with a power-packed batting line-up, but on a humid day and a sticky pitch they came up against historically the game’s finest tournament team and the big-match temperament of Australia told in the end.

An India versus Australia final it will be on Sunday, a not unpredictable outcome.

It was close, of course it was, and there was drama as Australia stumbled over the line in a nervy run chase.

It is the glory of the game that in the space of two days it can offer up such contrasting contests: Mumbai brought more than 720 runs and a rash of hundreds; this one in Calcutta just 427 runs and one hundred — made by the muscular David Miller — but it was no less interesting for that.

Low-scoring, nip-and-tuck ODIs have a special kind of intensity and, for the losers, an excruciating pain.

There was pain here for Miller, who played a fine hand in making 101 and who brought up an impressive century with a towering six to leg.

He came in with the innings in tatters at 24 for four and left with it restored at 203 for nine, and, but for his efforts, we might not have had a contest to enjoy at all.

This final didn’t look on the cards seven weeks ago, when Australia lost their opening two matches, but they held their nerve at that juncture, helped no doubt by the experience of their seven players who had been involved in the 2015 World Cup triumph.

They established a fine run of victories thereafter and here against South Africa produced their best bowling and fielding performance of the competition.

Before this, South Africa had won 15 of their previous 18 matches against Australia, including a convincing victory in the group stage, but South Africa and knockout matches in 50-over World Cups do not have a happy association.

Their batsmen could not escape the early stranglehold that Australia’s bowlers and fielders imposed and, although they fought with determination and skill with the ball, their total of 212 never felt enough.

Temba Bavuma admitted to feelings of great pride at the toss, leading South Africa into a World Cup semi-final, but also that he was not 100 per cent fit, because of his hamstring injury sustained at the closing stages of the group games.

He also said he had taken a message that morning from Siya Kolisi, South Africa’s inspirational double World Cup-winning rugby union captain, but the golden touch did not rub off, as Bavuma edged his fourth ball behind and fell for a duck.

He had little choice having won the toss, given South Africa’s penchant for batting first in this competition and their history of freezing under the pressure of a chase, but the heavy cloud cover, threat of rain and humid conditions were added complications.

Australia’s new-ball pair, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood, were impeccable from the start, with Starc finding late swing from a full length and Hazlewood hammering away relentlessly.

The only similarity with the start of the run-fest in Mumbai from the day before was the towering high catch that Pat Cummins took, after a frustrated swipe from Quinton de Kock, which had similarities with Kane Williamson’s catch to dismiss Rohit Sharma.

Here, though, it was the bowlers not the batsmen who were in charge and South Africa were forced to tip-toe into the game, unlike Rohit the day before, who went barging in.

As in Mumbai, the game was being played on a used pitch, the one from only five days earlier when England faced Pakistan.

Cummins said he would have batted first, but with South Africa 18 for two after the opening powerplay, the second-worst of their tournament, he must have reflected happily on making the wrong call. For such a destructive batting line-up, it was remarkable that it took 52 balls for the first boundary to come, when Aiden Markram clipped Starc through mid-wicket off a rare poor delivery.

Australia’s ground fielding was superb in this phase too, with Marnus Labuschagne and David Warner choking off runs at cover. Two balls after Markram had a drive stopped brilliantly by Labuschagne, Warner pounced on a catch at cover point and when Rassie van der Dussen edged Hazlewood to slip, South Africa had lost four wickets in the opening dozen overs.

The recovery came through Miller and Heinrich Klaasen, the finishers who had to kickstart things off this time.

Both took a liking to Adam Zampa, thrashing him for four sixes in a four-over spell, whereupon Klaasen missed a straight ball from Travis Head, who then trapped Marco Jansen first ball.

A stalled recovery meant Miller had to be more circumspect than normal and he had to marshal the lower order to a score, which he did with aplomb until hoisting Cummins into the deep.

The turn that Head, a part-time spinner, found might have informed his own approach with the bat, although Australia have been as aggressive as anyone in the opening powerplays in any case.

But the assault on Kagiso Rabada, in particular, looked a calculated one with Rabada conceding 32 runs in his first three overs — three sixes coming from his third — as Warner and Head got ahead of the game. After ten overs, Australia were 74 for two.

South Africa have a varied attack, with Keshav Maharaj, the No 1-ranked spinner in ODI cricket, and Tabraiz Shamsi, offering left-arm wrist spin, as well as the young speedster, Gerald Coetzee, and these three turned the game back towards their team.

Head had reached 50 in 40 balls but was bowled by Maharaj’s first ball and Shamsi separated the Test-quality engine room of Labuschagne and Steve Smith when he had Labuschagne leg-before sweeping.

When the hero of Mumbai, Glenn Maxwell, missed a heave off Shamsi, South Africa were on level terms for the first time in the game, with the ball turning more sharply than at any other stage in the competition.

Josh Inglis, who joined Smith, played calmly and skilfully against the spinners — the reason he had been preferred to Alex Carey at the start of the tournament — and the match turned again.

Bavuma played his hand wisely, encouraging Coetzee to go round the wicket to Smith, which worked instantly. Coetzee, a late pick for the injured Anrich Nortje, has speed and spirit and his pace ruffled Smith, who premeditated a swipe to a ball that he imagined would be short, but wasn’t.

When Inglis was yorked, Coetzee had taken more wickets than any other South African bowler in a single World Cup, and Australia were still 19 runs short of victory.

Not for the first time, Cummins helped to get his team over the line with the bat. With nine to win, De Kock spilt an inside edge from Cummins off Markram, and with it went South Africa’s hopes. To defend such a meagre total, every chance had to be taken, but too many half-chances were not.

A World Cup final remains out of reach for South Africa, while Australia head to Ahmedabad for a record eighth in 50-over cricket. Someone bottle the secret and send it to Lord’s.

The Times