Durban, Mar 04: A dressing room goof-up of the victory target cost South Africa the crunch match against Sri Lanka and showed the exit door to the World Cup hosts in the league round itself. South African skipper Shaun Pollock, face twitched with despair and myriad other emotions, said here today Mark Boucher did not know that one more run was needed for victory. "Boucher was given the message of 229. So he was pretty happy when he got that," Pollock said as he tried to swallow the bitter pill of a tied result with Sri Lanka in the rain-affected pool "B" match yesterday. Pollock said with rain threatening to fall any minute and the game set to be decided through Duckworth / Lewis system, a message had been sent out through 12th man Nicky Boje. "Boje wasn't able to get out there and give them the piece of paper to keep but the message that was conveyed was 229," the captain revealed.
"But you can't look at that and worry about it. Boucher didn't know the game was going to end after that ball. There was a lot that went on after that ball before we came off. If we'd faced one more ball of the next over we could have been through.
"You can look at all the ifs and buts but now it doesn't mean anything," Pollock said while admitting this defeat would "rank up there as the most disappointing".
"So close in two World Cups and out of both of them.... The guys are gutting. It's hard to describe. It'll take a long time sinking in," Pollock said. Bureau Report