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Headingly, June 13: Cricket scribe Neville Cardus would have been proud of the copybook approach that two of the strongest teams in the game took.

South Africa in green opted to bat on a reputedly seaming wicket. Australia, in a must-win situation to reach the semis, did well to maintain a tight line, but their fielding under the tense situation was occasionally surprisingly poor.

Hansie Cronje, out in second ball, wanted Australian to chase a large total but he hardly made any noticeable contribution. As captain he wanted to keep Australia out of the last four for obvious reasons; but he must have wanted a shy at the Zimbabweans against whom he has an old score to settle. No cricket Captain had a better reason to kill two birds with one stone.

Steve Waugh conceded that South Africa were 'the number one team in one-day cricket' but insisted that his side were able to beat them if they are on song. If they didn't they would give their illustrious opponents an easy semifinal with Zimbabwe, who must have been praying for an Aussie disaster although not really relishing the prospect of facing their neighbours again.

The cards were therefore on the table. The situation was tense. The crowd breathed the mood and was methodical in appreciating every bit of good cricket.

The best stock of cricketers was here. Both sides had a host of world class all-rounders, prolific batsmen and lethal bowlers. So complete were the two sides that the exclusion of Jacques Kallis and Darren Lehmann from the twenty-two made little impact.

With stakes for which Australia could not be envied and South Africa having sinister designs, both teams made the match look more like a clinical operation. That would have had Cardus on the edge of his arm-chair.

Herschelle Gibbs, one of Bob Woolmer's 'most talented cricketers', shared two steady partnership, 95 with Daryll Culliman for the second wicket and 78 with Jonty Rhodes, to build a terrific launching pad for South Africa.

In the process the right-handed opener scored his maiden World Cup century. His 124-minute knock included ten fours and a six. When he departed South Africa were 219 for four, and hard-hitting Lance Klusener was next in.

It was all going according to Hansie's plan and Zimbabwe had a genuine excuse to count the chickens at the interval.

If South Africa do manage to keep Australia out, they will eventually help Zimbabwe as the second African nation to qualify for the semis. That itself is the first.

Asia, the life of the game outside the field, has a lone representative in Pakistan. New Zealand could be joined by the Aussies as the second from that continent. That would leave the vast magnitude of the America and Europe out. Indeed Jagmohan Dalmiya's ICC has a lot of work to do.

The South Africa-Zimbabwe equation is even more interesting because paceman Steve Elworthy and 12th man Dale Benkenstein are Rhodesia-born.

At lunch, South Africa seemed to have made Harare smile as Australia were required to score 272 for a place in the semifinal. A tall task even with the likes of the Waughs, Gilchrist, Ponting, Bevan, Moody and Martyn padding up for Australia.

The Test-sides are more comfortable playing on Test grounds as Headingly. This was where Ian Botham hit an unbeaten 149 in the 1981 Ashes series that England won. One of the game's heaviest scorers and most reliable batsmen, Geoffrey Boycott, scored his hundredth hundred against Australia.

Home to Yorkshire county since 1899, the second session will see if Australia can emulate those fine innings. It may bother them a bit to know that Hedley Verity took 10 for 10 in 1932.

In their 15 overs Australia scrambled to 54 for the loss of Gilchrist, Mark Waugh and Damien Martyn. One could have forgiven the crowd for enjoying the Aussie misery (run-rate under 4) as they synchronised the best Mexican wave of the tournament. The fall of the early wickets put South Africa on top and Australia were resigned to an afternoon of nudging and prodding.

At times though, so sombre was the mood in the gallery that the crowd could have been jurors at a murder inquest. There were the intermittent oohs and ahs, more from watching the misery of the men from down under than at any exquisitely of the South Africans.

It was a match that Australia wanted to win, made difficult with South Africa's resolve to face South Africa. That element of arithmetic injected tension in the teams, marking them over-cautious that bordered on boredom. But, in a battle of equal purpose, played on neutral ground, the South Africans appeared the superior. The difference was the cushion of already being there and the needles of anxiety.