Exactly 15 years in the past, on March 12, 2006, South Africa shocked the sporting world after they chased down a world record goal towards Australia in an ODI at Johannesburg.
World champion Australia had posted a then world record rating of 434/4 in its first innings. But what shook the cricketing world was the truth that the Proteas chased down the mammoth goal with a wicket in hand and a ball to spare.
Interestingly, the historic match was a part of the five-match ODI collection and South Africa had wasted a 2-0 lead alternative within the collection. They had been looking at a 3-2 defeat when Australia scored the first-ever rating above 400 within the 50-over format with Ricky Ponting scoring 164.
But the sport wasn’t over but because the hosts weren’t going to surrender so simply and it was their star all-rounder Jacques Kallis who chipped in with a couple of phrases to get the opposite gamers out of their shells.
“OK, guys, I think the bowlers have done their job. Now it’s up to the batsmen. They’re 15 runs short; this is a 450-wicket,” Jacques Kallis stated one thing to that impact.
“Suddenly there was a lot of laughter and plenty of swearing, but at least it wasn’t bottled up inside. We had nothing to lose. What the hell — let’s give it a go. Before that moment, I don’t believe anybody would have even talked about trying to win. It seemed too ridiculous,” Mark Boucher, wicket-keeper on the time, wrote in his autobiography ‘Bouch: Through My Eyes’.
Coming to the chase, South Africa skipper Graeme Smith offered an electrical begin with a 55-ball 90 comprising 13 fours and two sixes, whereas Herschelle Gibbs smashed 21 fours and 7 sixes for 175 off 111 balls that helped South Africa not solely cross the road however clinch the collection 3-2.
Notably, the duo stitched an unbelievable 187-run stand for the primary wicket partnership to assist the hosts attain 200 in simply the twenty fourth over. However, Australia did bounce again within the sport and eliminated Gibbs, AB de Villiers (14) and Jacques Kallis (20) in fast succession to maneuver right into a dominant place within the series-decider.
The Proteas nonetheless wanted over 100 runs off simply 13 overs with a required run-rate of eight runs per over. (*434*) this was earlier than the arrival of T20 cricket.
This is the place South Africa’s wicketkeeper-batsman Mark Boucher stepped up and took over the mantle after Gibbs was dismissed.
While the runs stored coming, South Africa misplaced wickets at common intervals, till Makhaya Ntini was the final man to stroll in. But Boucher made certain that South Africa creates historical past as he smashed the profitable run off Brett Lee because the Proteas chased down the very best ever complete in ODI.
‘Hungover’ Gibbs performed the most effective innings of his life
Gibbs later revealed in his autobiography ‘To the Point: The No-Holds-Barred Autobiography’ that he was hung-over after he drank so much the night time earlier than the sport.
The Australians and South Africans had been put up in the identical resort at Johannesburg — Sandton Sun. Michael Hussey and Nathan Bracken set out for dinner on the night time earlier than the match and located a tipsy Herschelle Gibbs with a glass of wine in his hand. When Hussey and Bracken got here again three hours later, they observed Gibbs’s ongoing revelry by the watering-hole.
“Just before I went to bed an hour later I looked over the railing outside my hotel room and there he was, still in that spot. At least he was a free wicket,” writes Hussey in his autobiography Underneath the Southern Cross. If solely he was nearly as good a clairvoyant because the batsman he was.
Not so surprisingly, the then South African pair of captain and coach, Graeme Smith and Mickey Arthur, was dissapointed when Gibbs turned up half-drunk on the breakfast desk subsequent morning. Apparently, he’d snuck into his room solely an hour earlier.
Smith and Arthur had been inclined to wielding the axe over Gibbs, however a flatter Wanderers turf and a brief boundary at one aspect begged for his presence within the center. So, Gibbs was lastly named within the squad and the remaining is historical past.
