Cricket: Klusener's battering leads to whitewash

CAPE TOWN - New Zealand cricket captain Stephen Fleming was not as shattered as he was two seasons ago in Napier, but he was getting close after a last-ball Lance Klusener special sank the tourists in Cape Town yesterday.

Klusener clubbed a low Shayne O'Connor full toss over mid-wicket for four to help South Africa to reach their target of 257 with three wickets in hand.

The win, in front of a 16,000-strong crowd at Newlands, wiped out New Zealand's hopes of their first one-day win in South Africa as the Proteas sealed the series 5-0.

Klusener came to the wicket with South Africa teetering at 173 for five in the 37th over, but he bludgeoned 59 off 43 balls, including four sixes.

New Zealand's total was almost entirely due to a whirlwind partnership of 150 between Roger Twose and Chris Cairns.

Twose hit his first one-day century, 103 off 115 balls, while Cairns blazed his way to 84 from 72 balls.

It was the third time Fleming has experienced the helpless feeling of trying to stop Klusener in full flight. In Durban last Thursday he flogged 41 off 18 balls, and in Napier last year his six off the last ball helped South Africa on their way to a series win.

"It wasn't as devastating as that because that would have put us up in the series. Here, the series was dead, but you still don't like losing a game at any stage. It's fairly heartbreaking," Fleming said.

After another tidy spell from legspinner Brooke Walker, South Africa needed 49 off five overs. But Klusener slammed O'Connor for consecutive sixes in the 48th over and had valuable back-up from Shafiek Abrahams on his debut.

South Africa needed 11 off the last over, then seven from the last two balls. Klusener hit O'Connor through long-off to leave three required, and O'Connor's attempted yorker was put away to the boundary.

It was especially cruel for O'Connor, whose opening spell of three for 26 off seven overs seized some long-awaited initiative. However, he went for 29 off his last two overs.

He began by removing Daryll Cullinan and Jacques Kallis in consecutive balls before man-of-the-series Nicky Boje was nicked out by a perfect outswinger to make it 30 for three.

The fourth wicket fell at 65 when Gary Kirsten was caught and bowled by Chris Harris. Then Jonty Rhodes and Mark Boucher added 106 in little over an hour off 122 balls to set Klusener up.

Fleming believed the series whitewash did not truly reflect the relative merits of the two sides going into the three-test series starting in Bloemfontein on November 17.

"We've been reasonably competitive. You can't say we've been out of every game, except maybe Benoni," he said.

"In most of them it's been one player who has taken the game away from us."

For South African captain Shaun Pollock it was another golden moment in his brief captaincy career, having led the team to a 2-1 series win over Australia in April.

New Zealand had the launching pad for a score of 280 after Cairns and Twose added a scintillating 150 off 137 balls in just 90 minutes.

But from 189 for four with 15 overs left, the middle order could not follow through and the team added a further 67 only.

Cairns was savage on Kallis, smashing him for consecutive straight sixes and helping to take 52 off his five overs.

Twose, having brought up his 21st one-day half-century off 63 balls, moved into the 90s and he could so easily have departed on his previous highest score of 97.

However, he was dropped by Abrahams on the mid-wicket boundary before chalking up his first one-day century, off 114 balls, in the next over.

- NZPA