The Greatest Ever ODI: RSA v AUS Quiz

Answer: For the first time a 400+ target was set and also chased down

For the first time in the history of one day cricket, a team had scored 400 runs. The match played at the Wanderers ground in Johannesburg saw a target of 434 being set which by itself was a world record. The match was played till the last over and this huge target being chased down successfully.

The plethora of records created resulted in many newspapers calling this match as the greatest one day match ever played.

Answer: South Africa

The 5th ODI between Australia and South Africa was the last match of the series that was tied 2-2. Australia won the toss and elected to bat first and put up a massive record score of 4/434 in 50 overs. Most people had assumed that the result of the match was a foregone conclusion, they were stunned when South Africa chased down this score scoring 9/438 winning with one ball to spare. Thus South Africa won the series 3-2.

Answer: Ponting

Their captain Ricky Ponting who scored a blistering 164 runs in just 105 balls with 13 fours and 9 sixes.

Answer: Pollock

South Africa's best bowler Shaun Pollock missed the match because of a back injury. His absence affected the bowling as the Springbok bowlers could not stop the Aussie batting blitzkrieg. An interesting feature that was Glenn McGrath the lead bowler of Australia also did not play the match. The absence of two of the most economical bowlers probably resulted in the run glut.

Answer: Kallis

South African all-rounder Jack Kallis was the most expensive bowler in terms of runs per over in the Australian innings. He gave away 70 runs in his 6 over spell at a run rate of 11.66. Telemachus gave away 87 runs in 10 overs (8.7) Ntini and Hall gave 80 runs in 9 (8.8) and 10 (8) overs respectively.

Answer: Gibbs & Smith

The South Africans had to score 8.7 an over from the first ball. The start was disastrous with Dippenaar getting out for 1 run. Herschelle Gibbs and captain Graeme Smith then got together putting up a partnership of 187 runs. This partnership helped South Africa to reach 190 in 22.1 overs before they lost Smith.

Herschelle Gibbs top scored for the South Africans scoring 175 in 111 balls with 21 fours and 7 sixes.

Answer: He gave away more than 100 runs in his 10 overs

Australian bowler Mick Lewis had the dubious distinction of entering the record books for being the first bowler to give more than 100 ODI runs in a bowling spell of 10 overs. (Prior to this Sri Lanka's Ashantha de Mel had given away 97 runs in 10 runs against the West Indies in the 1987 World Cup. Also Martin Snedden of New Zealand had given away 105 runs in 12 overs in 1983 against England.) Mick Lewis' bowling figures read 10-0-113-0.

Incidentally, Aussie bowler Nathan Bracken took 5 wickets in 67 runs in his 10 over spell.

Answer: 26

There were a total of 26 sixes hit by both teams; 14 sixes were hit by the Australians with Ponting hitting 9 of them. The South Africans hit 12 sixes wqith Gibbs scoring 7 of them. There were also 88 fours hit in the match.

Answer: 7

South Africa needed 7 runs in the last over to win with Boucher and Hall batting, with Ntini still to come. The last over was bowled by Brett Lee.

Answer: Boucher

With 7 runs required of the last over by Brett Lee, Boucher took a single of the first ball leaving Andrew Hall on strike. Hall hit a four off the next ball, leaving 2 to be scored of 4 balls. Hall was out the next ball bringing in Ntini to the crease with 2 runs required off 3 balls. Ntini managed to get a single of the next ball bringing the scores level, Boucher then hit a four of the penultimate ball of the match, thus scoring the winning runs.

South Africa thus won by one wicket with one ball to score. Gibbs and Ponting were jointly named the man of the match, but Ponting refused the award saying Gibbs deserved it more. An aggregate of 872 runs were scored in the match which was another record (beating the previous 693 of India Vs Pakistan in 2004).