India vs South Africa, World Cup Cricket Highlights, (12 March 2011)
India vs South Africa, World Cup Cricket Highlights, (12 March 2011)Smith hails South Africa's determination
Five years ago, to the day, South Africa successfully chased 434 to beat Australia at the Wanderers. It was a historic win, featuring the highest run-chase in ODI cricket. It was a day to remember and when Graeme Smith was in the field against India on Saturday afternoon in Nagpur, memories of that game came back to him for all the wrong reasons.
"On the bus this morning the team manager said to me it was the anniversary of the 438 game and at one stage I was having nightmares about chasing that," Smith said. Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar were doing to the South African attack worse than what Adam Gilchrist and Simon Katich did that day in 2006. After 15 overs of that match, Australia were 96 without loss. India reached that point after 11.2 overs and they showed no signs of stopping.
While South Africa had a stunned home crowd to deal with in Johannesburg, in Nagpur they had a boisterous Indian crowd, spurring on every run. "We were on the backend of a massive beating," Smith said. "The noise out there was really intense." Control was slipping from Smith's hands and he didn't know what to do to rein in the run flow. Two overs later, he did the only thing he thought might work and called for a time out.
Robin Peterson had an lbw appeal against Sachin Tendulkar, which was clearly missing leg, but Smith asked for the review, not because he thought it was out, but because he felt the team needed a break. "It was really to bring the guys in together. The way Sachin and Viru were playing, it was difficult to connect and regroup."
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