An incredible finale to the greatest game
When it came to the crunch, with Australia seemingly down for the count, South Africa lost their nerve
Australia's plans for Klusener centred on yorkers about 30cm outside off stump, but despite being a dominant leg-side player he had no trouble blasting Damien Fleming's first two efforts for boundaries to tie the scores. Fleming's next ball was squirted to Darren Lehmann and Donald raced for the winning run before turning back; Lehmann had a short-distance underarm but missed the stumps by what seemed like miles. Australia sensed the game was lost. Three balls left, one run for South Africa to win.
"After Lehmann's miss the batsmen didn't chat and a few guys said Klusener was asking the umpire what the score was. The scores were tied and the pressure seemed to be back on the batsmen. The final ball was the perfect yorker, Klusener mishit it and I sensed he was running, but Donald stayed. Fortunately the ball went to Mark Waugh, who was running in from mid-off, and he flicked it back to me. I did a slow underarm down the pitch and Adam Gilchrist waited and waited."
- Damien Fleming
Donald had dropped his bat in the mix-up and was well short when Gilchrist knocked off the bails to generate wild Australian celebrations. The result was a tie, but Australia went through to the final due to a superior run-rate at the end of the Super Six stage. Even Steve Waugh managed to feel a bit sorry for South Africa.
Peter English is the Australasia editor of ESPNcricinfo