Cricket: Fleming's 134 leaves South Africa facing early exit

By RICHARD BOOCK

JOHANNESBURG - Stephen Fleming played the innings of his life as New Zealand confounded the pundits by beating South Africa by a scarcely-believable nine wickets at Wanderers this morning.

The innings kept alive the Black Caps hopes of qualifying for the second round.

In a match featuring two mouth-watering innings, Fleming's unbeaten 134 not only shaded Herschelle Gibbs' 143 as man-of-the-match quality, but quietened the 30,000-strong crowd and left the hosts needing a minor miracle to progress to the second round.

It was one of those magical days for the New Zealanders, who were faced with scoring 307 to overhaul South Africa's massive target. They eventually cruised to the Duckworth-Lewis revised target of 226 with nine wickets and 2.1 overs to spare.

In total, 535 runs were scored in less than 87 overs, but the major hand was played by Fleming, who survived a regulation chance on 53 before steering New Zealand to their second win of the tournament.

His first one-day international century for five years and his first as an opener. It was also his most accomplished innings of his career, given New Zealand were almost certain to be eliminated if they could not emerge with four points.

Opening this time with Craig McMillan after Daniel Vettori was troubled by back spasms, Fleming made a calculated start before increasing the tempo. He scored his century off just 109 balls (17 fours) and marched on to what must rate as the best innings of the tournament so far.

Whether he was unleashing some of his exquisite pull or hooks, driving straight or playing off his legs, Fleming showcased his talent with an innings teeming with class. This left the South African players and spectators alike in a state of shock.

Allan Donald, Shaun Pollock and Jacques Kallis all came in for some stick as the New Zealand captain made his move, helping to pile on 52 runs between the 11th and 15th overs. This included dispatching Kallis for four consecutive boundaries and smearing 13 off the 12th over bowled by Donald.

Fleming also shared in two match winning stands with McMillan and Nathan Astle, the first realising 89 for the opening wicket, and the second featuring an unbroken 140-run partnership for the second.

Astle, who also impressed as a No.3 in the match against the West Indies, ended unbeaten on 54. This is only his second half-century of his World Cup career, and made sure that Fleming would have no shortage of support.

For all the runs scored, it was a stop-start second innings, marked by a 15-minute delay because of a power-failure, an eight-minute initial break because of a shower. The major disruption followed with almost an hour lost to rain as New Zealand lay poised at 182 for one.

Needing a reasonably straight-forward 226 off 39 overs when play resumed, New Zealand had little trouble knocking off the remaining runs. South Africa are now in danger of repeating the effort of 1999 tournament hosts England, who were eliminated at the end of the first round.

It also brought back memories of South Africa's agonising elimination from the 1992 tournament in Australia and New Zealand, when they returned from a rain delay to discover they needed to score 22 runs off one ball to win.

On this occasion, however, they had no reason to rue the Duckworth-Lewis system as New Zealand had worked hard to place themselves in front of the required rate with wickets in hand. New Zealand progressed so well that they were six or seven overs ahead of the target throughout.

The win seemed all the more remarkable after Gibbs' effort in the first innings, which put the South Africans firmly in control at the halfway stage following solid partnerships with opener Graham Smith (60), Nicky Boje (66), Jacques Kallis (67) and Mark Boucher (50)

There was even another opportunity for Lance Klusener to make his mark against the New Zealanders and he didn't disappoint – flaying 33 off 21 overs, including four fours and a six.

New Zealand, who were scheduled to play Kenya on February 19, now have a nine-day break because of their decision not to travel to Nairobi, after which they square off against Bangladesh on February 26, and Canada on March 3.

NZ V SOUTH AFRICA SCOREBOARD:


South Africa:


G Smith c McCullum b Bond 23

H Gibbs c McMillan b Oram 143

N Boje b Styris 29

J Kallis c Vincent b Vettori 33

M Boucher c Cairns b Oram 10

L Klusener not out 33

S Pollock c Oram b Adams 10

G Kirsten not out 5

Extras (6lb, 11w, 3nb) 20

Total (for 6 wickets, 50 overs) 306

Fall: 60 (Smith), 126 (Boje), 193 (Kallis), 243 (Boucher), 260 (Gibbs), 287 (Pollock).

Bowling: S Bond 10 overs 0 maidens 73 runs 1 wicket (2nb, 3w), A Adams 9-0-57-1 (4w), J Oram 8-0-52-2 (1nb, 3w), S Styris 10-0-44-1 (1w), D Vettori 10-0-58-1, N Astle 3-0-16-0.


New Zealand:


C McMillan c Boucher b Donald 25

S Fleming not out 134

N Astle not out 54

Extras (8lb, 8w) 16

Total (for 1 wicket, 36.5 overs) 229

Fall: 89 (McMillan).

Bowling: S Pollock 8-0-36-0, M Ntini 8-1-33-0 (3w), A Donald 5.5-0-52-1 (3w), J Kallis 8-0-47-0 (1w), N Boje 2-0-16-0 (1w), L Klusener 5-0-37-0.

Result: New Zealand won by nine wickets.


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