Rebel League Match 2 cont'd: Aus Rebels v SA XI
South Africa were left needing 194 to win. The pitch was still decent, and they had almost the whole of the fifth day to make it so they were very strong favourites.
The chase got off to the worst possible start, with Barry Richards falling to the final ball of the second over, clean bowled by Terry Alderman for 4 to put the score on 8-1.
Cook and Kirsten looked to have put the early shock behind them, successfully negotiating the next few overs. However, McCurdy found a bit of extra bounce and induced Cook to edge to Rixon to go for 13 with the score now 24-2.
Disaster followed, Pollock edging his first ball on to his pads and seeing it ricochet onto his stumps: the South African legend out bowled Alderman for a golden duck and South Africa in desperate trouble at 25-3.
McCurdy and Alderman were matching each other blow for blow, and Kirsten was the next to go lbw bowled McCurdy for 9 and the score was 27-4
There may have been no demons in the pitch, but there were plenty in the minds of the batsmen as first innings centurion Clive Rice also went lbw bowled McCurdy for just 1 with the chase crumbling at 29-5.
With Procter also falling to a catch from Hogg off Alderman for just 5, the first ten overs of the innings were completed with the remarkable score of 43-6.
South Africa bat deep, and with Seef and Jennings and the wicket and Le Roux still to come the game was not over yet, but they needed to consolidate. They were beginning to do just that until Seef misjudged the line of one from Trevor Hohns and was lbw trying to work the ball into a gap on the leg side for 19, with the score now 59-7 and still 135 needed.
Le Roux joined Jennings and this partnership was surely South Africa's last chance. There were gaps in the field as Australia went for the kill with attacking fields, and with so long left in the day mere survival was no good to South Africa, they needed to attack and put pressure back on Australia. Counter-attacking to good effect, Jennings and Le Roux were able to bring up their 50 partnership in just 46 balls.
The two were looking very comfortable and had got to within 64 of the target when Jennings was late on a cut shot against Alderman giving Rixon a simple catch behind the stumps for the bowler's 4th wicket to send Jennings back for 44 with the score now 130-8.
Stephen Jefferies joined Le Roux, and Le Roux farmed the strike with Jefferies resolutely blocking every ball he faced as Le Roux went through to his second 50 of the match - great going for a number 9!
The pattern continued of Jefferies blocking and Le Roux looking to score. Le Roux had taken his score to 63 when McCurdy got one through to knock him over - with 33 left to make and South Africa down to their 10 and 11 - both out for a duck in the first innings - Australia sniffed victory.
Van der Bijl got off his pair with a four through extra cover, but edged his second ball... just short of point. His third ball was edged too, but unbelievably put down at second slip to see him survive the over - 29 runs left to get.
Jefferies and Van der Bijl were looking to score when they could - the attacking fields left some hittable gaps - but the timing was off and the boundaries were very hard to come by and the 1's and 2's on offer brought the target down slowly.
With 15 to get, Van der Bijl got yet another life when his third edge was put down at gully - Australia looked determined to throw this away.
With South Africa needing 6 and Jefferies on strike to Alderman, the end of the match was surely in sight. A big shot over mid-on brought up a 4 and a single followed next ball to leave the scores level.
Alderman steamed in to Van der Bijl who looked to force the ball through the vacant cover region... Unfortunately for him he found only the 4th edge of his innings and this time Rixon made no mistake in snaffling the catch to end the match in an incredible tie.
It was an amazing final innings - South Africa were huge favourites at the start but the implosion of their top order seemed to throw their chance of victory away. The strong rearguard action from Jennings and Le Roux and then their final pair gave them a sniff of a remarkable turnaround, but ultimately the tie was probably not an unfair result.
Australia will feel they should have won but ultimately paid the price for not scoring quickly enough in either innings which would have left South Africa with a bigger target. South Africa will feel that after a big first innings lead and with a very gettable target they should have done much better.
Kim Hughes was awarded the Man of the Match for his scores of 97 and 127*.
