SA shock Windies in last ball drama at the Wanderers

Yet there are those who can also point a finger at Brian Lara's captaincy for the West Indies losing one they seemed have tied up in so many knots only a Houdini was capable of providing the solution to what became the closest call possible before a near pack ``bullring''

South Africa, chasing 160 off 27 overs, needed 12 runs off the final over of this opening game of the Standard Bank Series with the balance of the game as even as any limited-overs match can be. So who did we have entrusted bowling the final over? Not Keith Semple or Carl Hooper bowling out their spell but left-arm spinner Neil McGarrell: the result a six, a two and a single off the next three balls.

As tension mounted and even hard-bitten journalists became intrigued by the unfolding drama, McGarrell looped the ball into the hard-hitting Klusener's arc: no one can afford to bowl short and that first ball of the over six all but settled the match for the Windies as Klusener provided the Houdini act South Africa needed to win by two wickets.

And this after a result in South Africa's favour seemed to be drifting away from them with the rapid departures of Jonty Rhodes and Hansie Cronje who did as much as anyone to help set up Klusener's final onslaught with a frenetic 65-run partnership for the fifth wicket when all seemed lost at 49 for four.

Yet when Pat Symcox joined his former Natal partner, and South Africa needed one run off McGarrell's final ball of the match, it the cool calculation of the veteran to win the game. A tuck into the square leg area and a scramble down the pitch had a touch of deja'vu with the century he scored against Pakistan at the same venue almost a year ago.

While South Africa almost contrived to blow a hole in their left foot as well as maroon their chances of winning the opening match, there will no doubt be a serious rethink about their batting strategy as the sides head for East London today for the second game.

Cronje's side ran into serious problems in the rain-affected match, reduced to 28 overs a side when play finally restarted around 7.45pm. They were maid to pay for a bowling miscalculation which left them an over shy and extra runs to chase. Although Rhodes rose from a sick bed to help Cronje lift the score from 49 for four to 114, with 50 coming off only 38 balls, the signs were they would fall short of the target.

And how South Africa made it hard for themselves: a slower over rate meant they had to score 160 off 27 overs and not the nominal 155 of 28. The adjustment was made on the fewer overs they had to face, but that's the format being used for the World Cup, just the sort of drama conjured by the incongruous Duckworth/Lewis rain-affected innings format which makes even a mathematical professor sweat with confusion.

When Rhodes joined Cronje in the 14th over, the damage had all but been done with the top-order scoring too slowly and not prepared to work the ball into the gaps or rotate the strike: two essentials in tight batting situations of a limited-overs match.

One criticism of Cronje's captaincy is that he may have been too attacking with too many players in catching positions when West Indies batted. There's nothing wrong with the ploy, but in rain-shortened games such tactics carry a risk and create a problem in a tight finish.

And with bowlers such as Curtly Ambrose around, scoring runs early on was always going to be at a premium. Lara gambled heavily on bowling out his trump pace card through his six overs allowed under the rain-affected format adjustment. As it is the Windies struggled with bowlers four and five; and were always a bowler short.

In the end it was left to man of the match Carl Hooper, with a well-worked 66 off only 61 balls who made the Windies total of 154 for four possible in such a shortened innings. With Keith Arthurton adding his weight with touches of calculated rotation the pair added 62 for the fifth wicket, just what the tourists needed.

Yet what partly undid the West Indies efforts to set a more challenging, and match-winning target was the run out of Shivnarine Chanderpaul. The elegant left-hander cover-drove and straight-drove with purpose: Steve Elworthy, for one, suffered. The diminutive batsman, so good off the back foot was quick to punish anything loose.

Then Hooper failed to respond as quickly as he should have and the young man was stranded with Pat Symcox collecting the ball and returning it to Mark Boucher.

Philo Wallace became one of those batsmen who managed to get in an innings before and after the dinner break, but even then he did not last too long before Rhodes picked up the first of two catches to give Steve Elworthy his 13th LOI wicket, but at a steep cost. And when Klusener struck with two balls in his first over, with Lara departing first ball to a sensational catch by Rhodes, the rickety top-order platform looked even more unsteady.

At 39 for three the batting woes continued for the tourists and perhaps the scoreboard got it partly right when suggesting that while two-thirds of the world were covered in water the rest was covered by Rhodes.

Yet it was the quality catch by Kallis, alone in the slips, which got rid of Nixon McLean, sent in as the pinch-hitter to take advantage of the fewer overs to be faced, which had the crowd buzzing. A touch of South African history was made when McLean became Klusener's first victim through the third umpire Danny Becker. He edged the ball, Kallis dived to his right but umpire Cyril Mitchley, unsighted, called on his protege to make a ruling. The crowd already shrunk in size by the rain, screamed hysterically when Lara went the next ball as Rhodes pulled off the catch at point.

By the time the rain had stopped and play began, the stakes of this rain-affected game of roulette had already taken shape. Not surprisingly, with rain threatening and pitch conditions more than a little unusual - the golf course end looked like something transplanted from Eden Gardens in Calcutta while the Corlette Drive end had enough grass on it to give the seam and swing bowlers some lateral movement - the selectors opted for experience.

In the end the top-order failed to deliver and put pressure on the lower order to scrape the runs together.

There was an impressive opening spell from Shaun Pollock and he looked steady until his last over when carved for 11. As it is the bowlers were split into groups: three were allowed six overs and two five, or part thereof if you like the technical jargon of the playing conditions.

Retaining almost the same side which won at SuperSport Centurion on Monday, South Africa made their intentions clear enough. There was no time for experiment: Pat Symcox in for Paul Adams and Steve Elworthy for Allan Donald. What shape the side takes on in East London tomorrow for the second match of the series depends on pitch conditions and the team's thoughts on the team rotation system Cronje talked about with such conviction only 48 hours ago ...