Australia feel what it's like to be on the other end of the World Cup juju

Of all the legends around Australia and the World Cup, there is one that stands on its own and it might not even be real.

Those five shiny gold trophies that they have in the cupboard don't showcase the aura they carry into ICC tournaments nearly as well as seven little words that may or may not have been spoken just before the start of the millennium.

Twenty-four years later, another very good middle-order batter hit the ball straight to the fielder and this one ended up on the ground too.

Did you say it, Aiden? Did you say it back?

On a balmy evening in Lucknow, a strange thread kept unfolding. Glimpses of it were first seen a few days ago in Chennai. Australia could have had their opposition at 20 for 4 but they dropped the catch and spent the rest of the evening wondering what if.

That doesn't happen. Certainly not in World Cups. South Africa know this feeling more than most. Of all the teams that have fallen prey to the Aussie juju, they stand on their own.

Everything was going perfectly in 1999 at Edgbaston. Shaun Pollock five-for. Allan Donald four-for. Just 214 to chase to win the semi-final and the openers get em off to a flier. 48 for 0 in the 13th over.

And then, completely against the run of play, Shane Warne arrived, did some things that didn't make sense, inspired the rest of his team-mates to follow suit and the game of cricket itself was changed forever.

The other protagonist from that unbelievable day managed to inflict even more wounds on South Africa. Glenn McGrath, who produced two wickets in the 49th over to force that tie, was still around in 2007 when the two teams met in yet another semi-final. He was 37 and perhaps because of that alone there were questions about whether he was still good enough. Well, five overs of his bowling reduced South Africa to 27 for 5.

For the longest time, this has been Australia. Especially at World Cups. They dropped jaws. They defied logic.

In 2023, one of their own has called them "a side put together at the last minute." In 2023, they are only 0.061 net run-rate points off the bottom of the championship table. In 2023, they are the worst fielding unit, with a catching efficiency of 54%. In 2023, their juju has deserted them. Worse yet, it seems to have shifted allegiance.

Australia's best batter was dismissed lbw after he had struck South Africa's best bowler for back-to-back fours and the decision left both him and his partner at the other end in open-mouthed disbelief. Steven Smith was rapped on the pads by Kagiso Rabada and it looked to be missing the wickets. Or at the very least umpire's call - which in this case was not out - but all of a sudden the big screen flashed three reds showing only the final still HawkEye projection of the ball hitting leg stump. The ball-tracking bit had gone missing. Smith had to walk off the field, shaking his head. The broadcast eventually showed the full replay with ball tracking and it was going on to hit enough of the target.

Until that moment, Australia's frustrations were directed only at themselves. They dropped six catches of varying difficulty - two in the space of three balls - but the most galling of them was Marcus Stoinis letting a regulation chance slip through his grasp in the 49th over. Having worked hard to come back from a hamstring injury, he was meant to provide ballast to Australia's middle-order, especially with his ability to swat spin bowling. But none of that would come to pass as he was given out caught behind in another contentious umpiring decision.

Australia have twice found themselves in a World Cup game with their seventh-wicket pair at the crease and the score a paltry 70. But that was pre-juju, in 1975 and 1983. That South Africa have put them back there is a nice, neat little twist in one of the game's greatest rivalries replete with highlights such as Mitchell Marsh basically tripping over himself and watching the ball sail over him for six and Sean Abbott palming a relay catch to thin air.

These fielding lapses can be addressed in training - and they really should be - but of greater concern is how Australia have misread the conditions and ended up fighting them at every point in this campaign, a self-inflicted wound because they won both tosses. With seven matches still to play, there is hope for Pat Cummins and his men to mount a fightback. The only thing is it no longer looks inevitable. It used to be. But no longer.