Times Media
TELFORD VICE, Melbourne
THE most successful team in one-day internationals played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG)? Clue: Australia would be the wrong answer.
The Aussies have won the most ODIs here - 71 - but they have also played the most - 118. Their winning mark of 62.17% is good, but it is not the best.
That accolade belongs to one of the teams involved in Sunday’s World Cup match at cricket’s concrete cauldron. Another clue: India would be the wrong answer.
SA have played only nine ODIs at the MCG, but they have won seven of them. That’s a success rate of 77.77%. After the Aussies, the next team happiest hunting on this ground are West Indies, who have won 18 and lost 18.
However, Allan Donald did not sound as if he felt at all at home yesterday. “It is an intimidating place,” he said after SA’s training session. “You just have to walk out there - these stands are empty and it’s (still) an intimidating place, full stop.”
If all goes well for SA and they end up in the final on March 29, they will be back at the MCG. But that was too much for Donald to think about right now.
“We’re not looking one game ahead of this game,” he said. “If the final brings us back here that’s great. It means we’ve played out of our socks to get back here. But we’re concentrating on Sunday. That really is all that matters.”
The first hurdle SA will need to clear on Sunday is a crowd as exponentially bigger as it will be more hostile than the one at their first match of the tournament at Seddon Park in Hamilton last Sunday.
That ground holds 10 000, and fewer than 9 000 turned up to watch SA beat Zimbabwe. Both teams enjoyed vocal support from their expatriate communities, all of it delivered and received in a spirit of good neighbourliness.
Contrast that with India’s match against Pakistan in Adelaide on the same day. Almost all of the 41 587 who turned up screamed themselves hoarse in their frenzied support for India.
As many as 100 024 bums can be put on seats at the MCG, and Sunday’s game is reportedly a sellout. Spotting the handful of SA fans in that vast crowd will take some doing.
So, what chance do SA have of shutting up the hordes of Indian fans who will fill the stands? Quite good, it would seem: India have played 18 ODIs at the MCG, and lost 10 of them.
The silence would indeed be golden.
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