Fans need a 1999 repeat to get the party started

How the World Cup needs at least one of the three remaining matches to produce some excitement to compare to that seen at the exciting conclusion of England's win over the West Indies.

Thanks partly to Australia performing at a level significantly superior to every other side in the competition, and the inclusion of possibly too many minnows, few matches in this tournament have produced sustained entertainment. England's defeat by Sri Lanka is a memorable exception but even Saturday's game was littered with errors before the closing overs lifted the spectacle.

Historically, however, the semi-finals have produced some of the best games in a World Cup, and many more competitive encounters than past finals - which too often have proven one-sided.

The closest final, for example, was contested in 1987 when Australia beat England by seven runs, but the latter never truly challenged once Mike Gatting, the captain, fell to the middling spin bowling of Allan Border. The next-closest is West Indies' comfortable 17-run win against Australia in 1979.

Far more entertaining were Australia's five-run semi-final victory over the West Indies in 1996 and - according to reports - England's nine-run win against New Zealand at the same stage of the 1979 tournament. And who will forget South Africa's epic semi against Australia in 1999, a match described by The Times as having a "ferocious number of twists and turns" and said to have such a devastating affect on the losing team that even today Graeme Smith had to field questions on its lingering affects?

The most likely game to produce a duel to even compare to that takes place tomorrow when New Zealand meet Sri Lanka with both sides almost certainly at full strength. Jacob Oram and Shane Bond, of New Zealand, and Sri Lankan's Lasith Malinga have recovered from minor injuries that kept them from competing in recent games.

If South Africa's fearsome batting line-up performs to its potential, they could yet challenge Australia, but one suspects that even then Ricky Ponting's side will prevail when they meet on Wednesday afternoon (BST). Until then, whet your appetite with two articles that dominated The Times's coverage of that incredible match in 1999, Christopher Martin's Jenkins' match report and a delightful colour piece written by Lynne Truss before she became famous for her thoughts on punctuation.

Comments

[Robert Dineen]

Thanks for the encouragement, Peter! But, what's NoDoze?

[Peter McGuinness]

Just thought I'd make a post Rob.

All the above absolutely true. South Africa's robots cannot reprogramme themselves under the wooden Smith. They have (again) talked a game that they cannot play. In this regard, they are the most reliable outfit in the history of cricket.

The more they try to 'out-Australia, Australia', the more they are humiliated. Do they possess a 'Plan B'? Demonstrably not, so it seems.

If they build their match plan around aggressive posturing, they will need to have a set of players whose skills are aligned to the philosophy. The idiotic (and pedestrian) Nel and the talented though glacial Kallis are cases in point.

Smith positions his men as brutal, killing machines. They are not. They are capable of pounding inferior teams, but flacid when confronted by superior quality. Until they shift their mentality to making the most of what they've got, instead of talking tough against the tougher, the sad status quo will remain.

Personally, I love it. It's a real joy to squash a big mouth. In time Smith - of course - will have to go. More's the pity. He's a hoot. Nel though, needs help. And not just the cricketing kind. I'll bet he was a late bed-wetter, the poor bugger.

Here's hoping a rousing final will cap off the tedium of the last (seemingly) 400 years of this tournament. Not long to go Rob. Hang in there mate...and watch what you drink with the NoDoze.