Although South Africa had struggled to 120 for five after Shoaib's thunderous opening spell had helped reduce them to 58 for five, they needed to score 101 runs off the remaining 108 balls. If they failed, the World Cup favourites' chances of qualifying for the semi-finals would depend on them defeating New Zealand on Thursday and Australia in tomorrow's final Super Six match. Lance Klusener, padded-up next to Donald, dropped his head into his hands. On the three previous occasionshe had been sent out to bat in the tournament he had won a man-of-the-match award each time for his singular style of bludgeoning heroics. But to repeat the trick four times out of five seemed too much even for him.

He turned to Donald and said: ``I can't believe it. All this pressure and I've got to go out and do it again.''

Shoaib screamed in while Jacques Kallis tapped away calmly with his bat. It was hard, in that agonising moment, not to remember Kallis from earlier that week. He had been sitting on his hotel bed, surrounded by striped mountains of socks, suitcases and CDs, the television flickering a silent blue behind him. He was 23 years old but, as he sighed, ``I've only had a two-week break from cricket in the last 30 months.''

Even a critic as pedantic as Geoff Boycott described him as the best all-rounder in international cricket, but Kallis wanted to talk rugby instead. As a schoolboy he had been a brilliant fly-half, touted as a future Springbok No 10. ``A lot of people thought I was amuch better rugby player,'' he explained. ``They said I was crazy to choose cricket. Sometimes I wonder if I did the right thing.''

Three days on there was not much time to think. The white ball flew from Shoaib's hand. It was a snorter, rearing past the leaping Kallis's nose. At a frightening lick it climbed over the wicket-keeper Moin Khan's head before cracking into the boundary fence. The speed-gun flashed: 91 mph. Kallis adjusted his helmet and, despite the fact that he had almost been cut in half, grinned a strangely knowing grin. They were another four runs closer to Pakistan's target, and Kallis again had his truth: he'd picked the right sport. Kallis and Shaun Pollock methodically built their crucial partnership of 77. But, with South Africa 135 for five, Pollock was caught at slip.As Klusener picked up his huge club of a bat, South Africa needed 86 off 83 balls. ``Lance is a funny guy,'' Donald said later. ``I don't know if it was confidence or nerves but he turned to me before he walked down thestairs. `Hey, Al,' he said, `just keep that champagne on ice for me. I'll see you soon . . .' He's an unbelievable character. He went out and did it. We were back from the dead -- again. And we really started to feel then this might just be our year.''

Remorseless machine in the relentless whirl of sporting platitudes, South African cricketers, like German footballers, are `efficient', `well drilled' and `ruthlessly professional'. Like a remorseless machine they grind the opposition down, squeezing the life and colour from more personable teams. Off the field they are meant to be similarly dour and robotic.

``It makes me laugh,'' says Bob Woolmer, South Africa's inspirational English coach. ``It shows complete ignorance of this side. I see it as a form of denial. Certain critics still have this attitude of, `well, we've never liked South Africans and so, consequently, we'll stick to the archetype'. It's not just the media. There are some great cricketers out there who hate this South African team one ofthem being Ian Chappell.``Perhaps that's not too surprising because the last time he actually played South Africa he was part of an Australian side that got smacked very hard (a 4-0 series defeat in 1970). But I like this `remorseless' tag. It means, as with the very best teams, we have a particular aura.''

For a ruthless machine, the South Africans have been extraordinarily accident-prone along their giddy path of victory. In their company, there is an endearing debate over favourite breakout missions from one-day games they were meant to lose but went on to win. As Hansie Cronje stresses, those seemingly miraculous recoveries are made even more remarkable by the fact that, when Woolmer took over as South Africa's coach in 1994, they were in the midst of an 11-match losing streak.

``We went to Pakistan with Bob to play in a one-day tournament with Australia. We lost all six games. Then in our first Test under Bob we were beaten at home by New Zealand. It was a testing time. The players were frustratedand lacking in confidence.

``But we've since made unbelievable progress. The simple facts are that under Bob we prepare well, we have some formidable all-rounders and we've learnt how to win -- from any situation. But we've also matured, both as cricketers and people.''

In the last days of Kepler Wessels' captaincy there was a divide between English and Afrikaans-speaking players. Under Cronje that gulf has disappeared. ``It's no longer an issue,'' Cronje insists, ``just as in another five years there will no longer be any problem about the number of black and coloured cricketers.''

--Observer News Service)