SA vs UAE: Rewind to Gary Kirsten, Sultan Zarawani and Allan Donald

South Africa take on UAE in World Cup after 19 years in Wellington on Thursday. (Source: Reuters)

At Wellington, South Africa takes on United Arab Emirates (UAE) for the first time in 19 years. The last time the two sides clashed was at Rawalpindi in the 1996 World Cup. That match is still remembered for two things. (Full Coverage| Points table| Fixtures)

First is for South Africa’s former opener and coach, also former India coach, Gary Kirsten’s unbeaten knock of 188 off 159 balls. Till Chris Gayle smashed 215 against Zimbabwe in the ongoing World Cup, Kirsten’s 188 not out was the highest individual scorer in World Cups. The other key moment of that match was when the then UAE skipper, an Emirati, Sultan Zarawani, was hit on the head by paceman Allan Donald’s bouncer.

What riled Donald was the fact that Zarawani came out to bat against him in a sun hat, which is considered as an insult by fast bowlers.

Much later when Donald spoke to Gulf News, he had said: “It was one of those incidents. He was hit on the head and it is not something that I want to see every day. However, as Sir Richard Hadlee (legendary ex-New Zealand star) once said, for a pacer a batsman is always an obstacle, and you have to act to move him somehow.” The man himself, Zarawani, recalled the incident in a recently launched book called The Second XI. “This helmet thing made me claustrophobic, I never wore one. And they were still quite new at the time,” Zarawani has been quoted as saying in the book.

After Zarawani got hit, he faced another six balls without scoring a single run. He was then rushed to a hospital. It turned out that Zarawani was unfit coming into that World Cup after operations on his knee and required regular cortisone injections to help him play.

“It was just a very good bouncer, it bounced just right in front of me. I didn’t have the reaction time and with these wobbly knees I couldn’t even bend down. It just grazed my head, it didn’t hit me bang on. It looked bad, it shocked me a bit, and I was a bit nervous afterwards. I was more camera conscious than worried about being hit by Donald,” added Zarawani in the book.

But despite that hit by Donald, Zarawani bravely played four more matches in that World Cup. UAE rounded off the tournament with their first-ever World Cup win, against fellow qualifier Netherlands. That match was also incidentally was the last time Zarawani turned out for UAE in an international.

Source:: Indian Express