Wills Cup: A view from the gully (26 October 1998)
England's specialised 'hit squad' for ODIs bumped into hardened 'criminals' Sunday night in Dhaka
26-Oct-1998
26 October 1998
Wills Cup: A view from the gully
By Tawfiq Aziz Khan
England's specialised 'hit squad' for ODIs bumped into hardened
'criminals' Sunday night in Dhaka. As if to prove their superiority,
Cronje's men confirmed their 2-1 victory back in England was no fluke.
Australia and England are the two countries seriously trying to find
out a winning combination for the instant variety of the game. Whether
this is good approach or not, only time can tell; but on the face of
it England seemed to be still groping in the dark.
The last couple of days have produced fascinating results and
extremely entertaining cricket, although cricket at times was pretty
drab when England were batting in the afternoon.
Almost all the four innings have similar characteristics except that
South Africans lost three quick wickets after they passed the hundred
mark. England, New Zealand and Zimbabwe lost early wickets.
The Proteas, depleted by the absence of star batsman Gary Kirsten and
the deadly duo of Donald and Pollock thrilled the local crowd to some
exhilarating fielding in the afternoon and then came in difficult
circumstances to wrest the initiative from the Englishmen. Daryll
Cullinan in particular was in a devastating mood and secured his 50
(in fact 52) with as many as 12 fours. The rest four came from
singles. He set the field afire with his powerful strokes around the
wicket. Along with southpaw Mike Rindel, he put on 113 for the first
wicket after posting 70 in only 10 overs. A battery of seven bowlers,
including Brown, did have no effect on the gritty South Africans.
Brown's departure early in the England innings could not dampen the
spirit of Ealham who knocked up a breezy innings of 44. But Hick had
another disappointing match going on the back foot and Lloyd came and
strolled back to the pavilion. Clearly the Englishmen were naive -
very unlike them though.
Hollioake along with Neil Fairbrother stemmed the rot. It was obvious
that these two were not going to give up without a fight. Cronje
gambled with Symcox by opening the attack with him. It soon paid but a
thrashing by Ealham send him off.
Fairbrother was on his happy hunting ground. Only a few years back he
thrilled the local crowd with an entertaining innings on this wicket.
He is a popular man too. These two engaged themselves in the repairing
job and put on 112 runs before Fairbrother perished. With Jack Russell
and Giles as partner Hollioake took the scope to a defendable figure
of 281 - at least it appeared so at lunch interval.
Batting second after a perspiring day on the field is always a hard
task. But the South Africans had a tough job ahead of overhauling the
England total. The English attack looked pretty innocuous, especially
against the onslaught of Cullinan and rookie Rindel. Debutante Dawson
and Benkenstein were quite impressive. Unlike his more illustrious
colleagues Donald and Pollock, Dawson was a short man and reminded one
of the late Ramakant Desai of India as Boje of Nasimul Gani of
Pakistan, the only difference being Gani a bit taller and quicker than
Boje.
Cronje and Rhodes very efficiently pulled the runs under Hollioake and
frustration could be read on the face of the English captain.
South Africa finally won with 20 deliveries to spare. They now await
the winners of today's match for the semifinal.
Source:: The Bangladesh Daily Star (https://www.dailystarnews.com)