Flashback: ENG and SA play out a thrilling tied ODI
England and South Africa managed to entertain the crowd with a humdinger of a game on this very day (February 2) 17 years back at the Goodyear Park in Bloemfontein. It was a very rare instance when an ODI game ended up in a draw and both teams didn’t deserve to not lose the game. Interestingly, the game marked the ODI debut for one of the best batters ever, AB de Villiers. Let’s have a deeper look into how the game panned out.
Earlier in the day, South Africa elected to field first after winning the toss in the second ODI of the seven-match series. Marcus Trescothick (37), Gerant Jones (20) and Michael Vaughan (42) all got going but could not manage to get to a bigger score and England were stuttering at 147 for 4 in the 34th over with set batters gone.
However, Kevin Pietersen and Paul Collingwood joined hands at the crease and formed an excellent partnership with the former going on to make an unbeaten century off 96 balls. England managed to get to 270 for 5 with a late burst while the South African bowlers had a decent outing with none making a big mark.
In reply, the skipper Graeme Smith came out to bat with the debutant AB de Villiers and both the batters were dismissed right before the 10-over mark. However, the likes of Jacques Kallis and Herschelle Gibbs took the game deep until being dismissed for 63 and 78 respectively. Justin Kemp who hit some lusty blows was out for 32. The onus was then on Mark Boucher and Shaun Pollock to take them home.
South Africa lost three wickets in the final over to tie the game
Kabir Ali was given the task of defending 8 off the last over and the breeze was definitely blowing in the Proteas direction with a boundary off no-ball coming in the first delivery. However, the pacer came back with a wicket of Boucher the very next ball and conceded just one run in the remaining four deliveries to move to a stage with 1 run needed in 1 ball. Andrew Hall who came in to bat at nine was dismissed off the final delivery to stage a surprising tie.
