Defiance, despair, disbelief: Four balls etched in cricket folklore

We had spoken about Klusener the night before and we'd come up with this bowling plan of coming around the wicket and bowling outside off-stump to keep away from his stumps. I wasn't totally comfortable with that game plan. I used to like to bowl yorkers to hit the stumps. It's the old adage 'If they miss, you hit'. And it wasn't five days before the game so I could practice it, but the night before.

Ball one. Fleming to Klusener. Nine to win off six balls.

I wasn't unhappy with the release. But if I hit 90 miles per hour, he seriously hit it back at 500 miles per hour. It went like a gun going off. Someone mentioned it bounced off the fence all the way back to me, which was a bit embarrassing when you're bowling.

I remember the crowd going off, and you could already sense the boys that were so pumped before the first ball, I still remember 10 of my teammates saying, 'Come on Flemo'. I felt proud. I still wasn't totally comfortable bowling to his supposed weakness on the offside, and after that four I was pretty sure that that wasn't a weakness, but it's a World Cup semi-final so you don't change your game plan.

Ball two. Fleming to Klusener. Five to win off five balls.

Five to win off five balls, and they've only got one wicket left so I only need to get Allan Donald on strike. Steve Waugh said, "Are you OK?" and I said, "No worries, skipper." I bowled the same sort of line outside off stump but this one's a bit of a half-volley. 'The Klusenator' as I call him, he's hit this twice as hard. Mark Waugh's only about two metres away and it just smashes into the long-off fence to tie with four balls to go. The crowd is going nuts. Klusener and Donald are high-fiving. And it's fair to say I'm getting absolute doughnuts from my team-mates at this stage.

Ball three. Fleming to Klusener. Scores tied.

We knew a tie would get us through as we'd beaten them in the previous game. When Klusener hit that second one for four I thought to myself, 'I've got to bowl him out now'. It wasn't about, 'We're going to lose this game', it was just, 'I have to bowl him out'.

I was never comfortable coming around the wicket to Klusener, so I wanted to come over and said to Steve Waugh, "Mate, I'm coming over the wicket", and Tugga was great at backing his players and he loved his players being aggressive and positive. It's pretty brave when it's a World Cup semi-final and you were keen on this game plan, but he said, "Mate, just do what you got to do."

So I tell the umpire I'm coming over the wicket, Tugga brings in the field and I'm still focusing on the yorker but obviously I want to hit the base of off stump, because I've got to knock him over to win the World Cup semi. The ball was a bit of a shocker. I tried for the yorker but it was a half-tracker.

Klusener was not thinking I was going to deliver that. He miss-hits and I remember him just running but not calling, and Donald going to run but he hasn't fully committed. The ball goes to Darren 'Boofa' Lehmann who proceeds to get the ball and probably from about two metres away misses his run out attempt by about two metres. If he hits the stumps we're through to the World Cup final, but Boof just couldn't deliver.

Ball four. Fleming to Klusener. Scores tied.

As I'm walking back, I'm thinking, 'Boof, I hope that's not our last chance to win the World Cup'. It was interesting though, Klusener and Donald after that near run-out, they didn't communicate. Now If I was batting with Michael Bevan or Steve Waugh, we would have said with three balls to go, 'Try to hit through the field, and if it gets down to the last ball you just run'. It's funny how pressure can change, and all of a sudden with nothing to lose with nine to win, with one run to win off three balls, we're now in that position where we've got nothing to lose. My only focus now was to hit the base of off-stump. I was pretty clear, I was so much more comfortable coming over the wicket.

I ran in for the fourth ball, and I like to think I bowled a picture perfect yorker. My country needed me, and I belatedly put my hand up – but three balls too late! It's a beauty and Klusener jams down on it.

I can still vividly remember it – Klusener puts his head down, he starts running again and I don't hear a call, but Donald, wary after nearly getting run-out the ball before, stays in his crease. The ball goes to Mark Waugh – thank God – and he fields beautifully as he always does and has a go at the stumps.

He misses, I get the ball and proceed to underarm the ball to Adam Gilchrist down the other end, and poor Gilly, it's the slowest underarm of all-time, it's going about a centimetre an hour, so he must have felt like the ball was never getting to him. It eventually gets to him, he takes the stumps and we're through.

There's that classic photograph where we're all bouncing up and down like kids out of kindergarten. The thing about that World Cup was there was no security, so there's 25,000 people running onto the field, so there's no time to really celebrate. We just had to get off that field as quickly as possible. We were all so pumped and I think the general feeling was we'd gotten ourselves out of jail.

– as told to Sam Ferris

Australia's 1999 World Cup

May 16: Beat Scotland by six wickets in Worcester

May 20: Lost to New Zealand by five wickets in Cardiff

May 23: Lost to Pakistan by 10 runs at Headingley

May 27: Beat Bangladesh by seven wickets at Chester-le-Street

May 30: Beat West Indies by six wickets at Old Trafford 

June 4: Beat India by 77 runs at The Oval (Super Six)

June 9: Beat Zimbabwe by 44 runs at Lord's (Super Six)

June 13: Beat South Africa by five wickets at Headingley (Super Six)

June 17: Tied with South Africa at Edgbaston (Semi-final)

Jun3 20: Final v Pakistan at Lord's