India at Champions Trophy: Virender Sehwag saves the day with his 3D impact as South Africa self-destruct yet again

South Africa gave their critics another chance to use the ‘C’ word during their semifinal against India in the 2002 Champions Trophy in Colombo

It’s a word that has been associated with South African cricket for years on end. A word not pleasant in any way imaginable, a word generations of South African cricket fans have come to hate. In some quarters, it is viewed as disrespectful, if not outright derogatory, but it’s a word South Africa will have to live with until they produce a performance in a knockout game of a major tournament where they overturn a losing battle into a triumphant one.

Team India players during the Champions Trophy clash against South Africa in 2002(Getty)

‘Chokers’. That’s the word we are talking about. Loosely translated, it means snatching defeat when the waft of victory overwhelms the air, embracing defeat with the welcoming arms of success a few millimetres away.

As if to buttress the point came South Africa’s spectacular implosion in the final of the T20 World Cup against India in June. At the Kensington Oval in Bridgetown, South Africa needed a most manageable 26 from the last 24 deliveries with six wickets standing, yet somehow managed to court a seven-run heartbreak.

It was the extension of a sequence that began in the mid-1990s. At the 1996 World Cup, for example, they won all their league games with a measure of comfort before being flattened in the quarterfinals by West Indies, inspired by a Brian Lara century. Three years later in England, they stuttered and stumbled and only managed a tie in the semifinal against Australia despite being well in command, eliminating themselves because Steve Waugh’s men had clinched the second-stage faceoff between the two teams.

Mindful of the significance of runs on the board, especially against the Proteas, in a knockout fixture, Sourav Ganguly chose to bat at the R Premadasa Stadium. Not many knew what to make of India’s eventual tally of 261 for nine, not miniscule but hardly the total that one could feel fully secure with. India didn’t find any great momentum despite Virender Sehwag’s run-a-ball 59; each of the top seven got off to starts but apart from Sehwag, Rahul Dravid (49) and Yuvraj Singh, no one else touched 25, which meant partnerships were at a premium.

Even Yuvraj, free-stroking and unfettered as they come, struggled to impose himself on the bowling, He and Dravid put on 72 for the fifth wicket but took their time doing so, off 93 balls. Yuvraj batted almost till the end in making 62 off 72 deliveries, but the fact that he could only hit six fours and no sixes spoke to the challenges posed by the surface and a disciplined bowling attack with the captain and Allan Donald in the forefront.

India drew early blood when young opener Graeme Smith was gobbled up by Zaheer Khan – a foretaste of the left-arm quick’s dominance over the left-handed batter – but Herschelle Gibbs and Jacques Kallis turned the game South Africa’s way in their own contrasting fashions. Gibbs was a maverick opener who, when the mood seized him, was as explosive as anyone else going around, while Kallis was more the majestic accumulator, batting at his own pace.

Twist in the tale

Their 178-run association took the South Africans to within 69 of victory with nine wickets and more than a dozen overs left when came the first twist in the tale. Having battled fatigue and dehydration and cramps, Gibbs retired hurt with the score on 192 after a stunning 116. South Africa had plenty of batting and no great run-rate pressure, so it ought to have been normal service. But South Africa are pretty adept at creating pressure where there is none, and that’s precisely what happened as, from out of nowhere, India sensed an opening.

Harbhajan Singh provided India with the first sliver of hope, dismissing Jonty Rhodes and Boeta Dippenaar in the space of four deliveries as Protean nerves began to jangle. Ganguly shrewdly brought Sehwag’s off-spin into the mix and the latter didn’t disappoint as the middle order unravelled dramatically rapidly.

Somehow, from less than a run a ball, South Africa had left themselves needing 21 off the last over, to be bowled by Sehwag. Kallis hit the first ball for a six and was dismissed off the next, and Lance Klusener couldn’t hit a shot in anger. South Africa finished on 251 for six, unbelievably, with India home and dry by 10 runs.

Brief scores: India: 261/9 in 50 overs (Virender Sehwag 49, Rahul Dravid 49, Yuvraj Singh 62; Shaun Pollock 3-43, Allan Donald 2-41) beat South Africa: 251/6 in 50 overs (Herschelle Gibbs 116 retd. hurt, Jacques Kallis 97; Harbhajan Singh 2-37, Virender Sehwag 3-25) by 10 runs. PoM: Virender Sehwag.