How it feels to... throw away a World Cup semi-final

Allan Donald and Lance Klusener talk NEIL MANTHORP through that fateful day at Edgbaston in 1999

“Five balls left. Fleming in and bowls, Klusener thrashes at this through long-off for four more! Scores are level! Unbelievable hitting by Klusener! And South Africa now poised at the brink of an unforgettable victory!”

The commentator was radio veteran Tim Lane, calling the game for the ABC. “31 from 14 balls. The man of the World Cup, Lance Klusener, needs to score one more run to put his country into its first final. And there are four balls left. A wicket in hand. And that wicket would put Australia in the final. A tie would have Australia in. South Africa need to win it. They’re all up now. They’re all up, around the bat. Klusener adjusts his helmet…”

The next delivery should have been the last of the match but Darren Lehmann misses an underarm throw at the stumps from a couple of metres with No.11 Allan Donald stranded.

Lane: “Well! Another chance. Another one goes begging. Three balls left. One to win. Fleming in, bowls. Klusener hits back past the bowler. There’s a mix-up! Oh, there could be a run-out! There WILL BE a run-out! It’s a tie! Australia is in the final!”

^{Lance Klusener hits out in vain}

Time heals all wounds, they say, but this is the one which has left the greatest scar on the psyche of South African cricket followers. Larger even than the one inflicted by the reality of Hansie Cronje’s collusion with matchfixers, confirmed just a year later. 

Donald was far more aware of the impact of what had just happened than Klusener would be for many years to come: “Thank God, we’ve got away with it, we’ll be OK now,” he said to himself after picking himself after the Lehmann near-miss.

Fleming’s next ball was a yorker which hit the bottom of Klusener’s bat and bounced past the bowler. “I was in the crease until the moment the ball passed him and only then did I start to run. I looked up and Lance, saw him rushing to my end, and started to run as well.

"Time does heal, but it’s all still there, you can’t change anything. I tried pretending it didn’t happen for a few years, but that didn’t work. I’m sorry"

"My legs felt like jelly. I heard the Aussies shouting ‘Keeper! Keeper!’ as I tried to get my legs moving properly. It was a dreamlike sequence. I ended up dropping my bat, and was run out by 10 yards at least. The Aussies fell into each other’s arms, and my world just fell apart,” Donald said.

“I think I was right to stay in my crease until the ball passed the bowler but I should have run instantly when it did. But I was too slow in getting out of the blocks and Fleming had the time to gather Steve Waugh’s throw from mid-off and underarm to the keeper’s end.

"It looked terrible – amateurish, panicky, village green stuff – not what you should see in a World Cup semi-final featuring a guy who has played for his country for more than a decade. I had let down my batting partner, my team and my country.”

^{Allan Donald is run out and Australia are in the final}

Klusener believed for years that the world would “move on” and the horror would be forgotten. But years rolled by and he saw people still looking at him “funny”. The braver ones would ask what happened. And why.

“Eventually I accepted that it would be a part of my life forever, that for as long as I was around I would have to explain it, over and over again… and that I would always have to say ‘I’m sorry’,” Klusener said 10 years ago.

And now, a further 10 years down the line with the World Cup returning to England and another semi-final scheduled for Edgbaston? 

“Time does heal, but it’s all still there, you can’t change anything. I tried pretending it didn’t happen for a few years, but that didn’t work. So, I’m still sorry.”

This article was published in the April 2019 edition of The Cricketer - the home of the best cricket analysis and commentary, covering the international, county, women's and amateur game

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