Exactly 25 years from now on this day (June 17) in the ODI World Cup 1999, the cricketing world witnessed one of the historic semi-finals ever in the history of the ODI World Cup. This thrilling last-over ‘tied’ contest took place at Edgbaston, Birmingham between Australia and South Africa. Even after 25 years, this nail-biting encounter remains alive in the hearts and minds of the cricket fans and all who witnessed the ‘iconic’ finish with an unforgettable ‘Allan Donald run out’ for South Africa.
Speaking of the action of the match, the then Proteas skipper Hansie Cronje won the toss and asked the Aussies to bat first. Australia were in trouble in the first innings after they lost 4 wickets just at the score of 68 runs in 16.6 overs. But then came the crucial and all-important partnership of 90 runs between skipper Steve Waugh and one of the greatest finishers of his era, Michael Bevan.
Waugh scored 58 runs followed by 65 runs scored by Bevan. These knocks helped Australia to post a total of 213 runs in 49.2 overs, losing their all wickets. Legendary all-rounder Shaun Pollock claimed an amazing five-wicket haul, scalping 5 wickets just at the cost of 36 runs in 9.2 overs, with one maiden over. Besides him, the ‘white lightening’ Allan Donald also claimed 4 wickets at the cost of 32 runs in his quota of 10 overs.
While chasing the target, legendary all-rounder Jacques Kallis and middle-order batter Jonty Rhodes played the crucial knocks of 53 and 43 runs, respectively followed by Lance Klusener’s 31 runs off just 16 balls, with 4 fours and a six.
The unforgettable ‘Klusener-Donald last over mix-up’ knocked SA out of ODI World Cup 1999
South Africa were easily heading towards the win and the ‘qualification for Final’ as they needed only 9 runs in the last over of the game, after scoring 205 runs for the loss of 9 wickets in 49 overs. The well-settled batter Lance Klusener was on the strike to face Australia’s Damien Fleming in the last over.
Klusener managed to hit two consecutive fours on the first two balls of the over, with only 1 run required from the last 4 balls, which was looking very easy for the Proteas. After playing the third ball dot, Klusener played a shot to run a single but his non-strike partner Allan Donald didn’t look at the former’s indication for a single and was looking at the ball.
It eventually resulted in a mix-up between Klusener and Donald, which ended up in ‘Allan Donald getting run out’ and the match ended in a tie. Australia’s better positioning in the super-6 points table was better than South Africa which made them qualified to the Final of the tournament, where they defeated Pakistan to lift their second ODI World Cup title.
Also read: Sri Lanka hung on to a dramatic draw in the Lord’s Test, thanks to their last wicket-stand, in 2014
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