South Africa broke their rather infamous title drought with a clinical five-wicket win over Australia in the World Test Championship Final. The country has produced many a great player since its last ICC title triumph back in 1998 and among those who arguably had to endure the biggest heartbreak of them all is fast bowling Allan Donald, who now says that this victory has acted as an antidote to that.
“It’s a massive, massive day in South African cricket, it’s a massive day in South African sport. It’s something that unites this country so closely. To get that over the line shuts the door that’s over 30-odd years old. Or maybe I’ve jumped the years a little bit, but it’s something that’s taken a lot of pain away as you know. Not really going to go into that detail (laughs), but you know what I’m talking about with us and ICC events,” Donald is quoted as saying by Cricblog.
Donald was part of the 1992 World Cup squad that fell victim to some miscalculations on the part of those deciding a revised target for them when rain interrupted the semi-final against England. They went from needing 22 to win off 13 balls, then suddenly needing 22 off seven and then even that being revised to 22 needed off one ball.
More prominently, Donald was the non-striker who didn’t commit to the one run that was needed to win when the brilliant Lance Klusener took off from the other end in the 1999 World Cup semi-final against Australia. He lost his bat and was run out, the match ended in a tie and Australia went through as they had finished above South Africa in the Super Six stage.
“This team, this group have shown, in the Test Championship, in the cycle, that they’ve had to win eight Test matches in a row… just showed immense character, immense character,” Donald said.
