"Who's the man?"

I am constrained to repeat the opening line of my previous post.

"How do champions respond to bad patches?

By rising like a phoenix does."

Oh, and there's a similar photo too...



The South Africans, who were mauled earlier in the day, responded like how some superstar-wannabes in Tamil cinema do: "It doesn't matter who gets to 400 first. What matters is who wins the game at the end!"

What a game! What a truly magnificent game! For once, I pity the fact that a large section of Chennai could not play witness to simply the greatest one-day cricket match ever (because of CAS regulations). Mates, you missed it!

Chasing an ungettable 435 for victory, at a staggering 8.7 runs per over, South Africa reached the target with a ball to spare, thanks largely to a fine knock from Herschelle Gibbs, and important contributions from skipper Graeme Smith (90), Mark Boucher (50) and Johan van der Wath (35).

Herschelle Gibbs, who scored 175 off 111 balls, was in a murderous mood, and could have become the first man to cross 200 in a one-day game, before he holed out to Brett Lee trying to go for a hat-trick of sixes. South Africa looked comfortable for the most part, as they were consistently up there with the asking rate. But in a game like this, the chasing team is always precariously placed, because a wicket or a good over is all it takes to swing the game away into the fielding team's favour. But fighters as they are, the Proteas never gave up, and man after man came in a played a crucial knock. Even the portly Roger Telemachus put his morning blues behind him and carted a couple of important boundaries.

This match, the final of this series, has broken a lot of records. The two highest ODI totals, the maximum number of 4s and 6s, and the unfortunate Mick Lewis who was pummeled for 113 off his 10. I feel sorry for him, in fact for all the bowlers. As one commentator put it, "Who would want to take up bowling as a career?" Yes, that is the only sad part to this game. Cricket is becoming increasingly batsmen-friendly, nay, it is becoming bowler-unfriendly rather. ICC, are you listening?

Anyway, it was a fabulous game. One worth the money. It is time to celebrate South Africa's victory (and incidentally, VKpedia's 150th post too!)