South Africa and rain have a very old and painful relationship. The supporters of this team simply hope that the rain will not ruin their chances at any major ICC tournament. But history says something else. There have been many times when South Africa was in a strong position, but rain and DLS rule shattered their dreams.
From 1992 to 2015, rain was more responsible for South Africa’s defeat in many big matches than the opposing team. Sometimes the DLS rule ruled them out, and sometimes the team’s journey ended due to misunderstanding. Let’s take a look at those three big occasions when rain dashed South Africa’s dreams of winning the trophy.
Three Instances Where Rain Derailed South Africa’s ICC Ambitions
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World Cup 2015: Semi-Final vs. New Zealand
In the semi-final of the 2015 World Cup, South Africa was batting first and looked in great rhythm. But as soon as the 37th over ended, rain stopped the game. At that time South Africa was playing at 216/3 and was in complete control.
After the rain stopped, the match was limited to 43 overs per team, which was a big blow to South Africa. They had only 6 overs, in which they added 65 more runs and scored 281/5. But under the DLS rule, New Zealand got a revised target of 298 runs.
In the end, New Zealand won the match by 7 wickets with one ball remaining. If rain had not interrupted the game, South Africa’s chances of reaching the final were very high.
World Cup 2003: Group Stage vs. Sri Lanka
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This match of the 2003 World Cup was a “what has happened” moment for South Africa. This was the last match of the group stage and victory was necessary for the team. They had got a target of 230 runs in 45 overs.
Mark Boucher was at the crease in the last moments of the match and he got the wrong information that the team needed 229 runs to win. He played the final ball lightly, took a run, and tied the score in this confusion.
Soon after this, it started raining and the match could not be played further. Based on net run rate, South Africa was eliminated from the tournament after the match ended in a draw. If this misunderstanding had not happened, South Africa would have been in the next round.
World Cup 1992: Semi-Final vs. England
South Africa was playing for the first time in the 1992 World Cup and had performed brilliantly by making it to the semi-finals. But when victory against England was just a few balls away, rain spoiled the whole equation.
South Africa needed 13 runs from 22 balls when the game was stopped due to rain. After some time when the match resumed, under the DLS rule, South Africa was given an impossible target of 21 runs from 1 ball!
It was obvious from this that South Africa would not be participating in the tournament. This incident was so controversial that after this, new rules were made for rain-affected matches and the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern (DLS) method was implemented.
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