Birmingham (England) - Anyone who has any knowledge of chess would tell you how important is the king's pawn to the end game. He has the sort of protective role designed to blunt the cunning attack of the opposing queen knight gathering to take him out. In this sense Shaun Pollock whose World Cup  has been less productive as a wicket-taker, quickly removed the king pawn, Mark Waugh as early as the first over and Australia were troubled from that point on in their winner take-all semi-final against South Africa at Edgbaston today. It was the sort of delivery which would have seen the downfall of even the most proficient of batsmen, jagging back off the seam and the sharp lift and bounce forcing the younger Waugh twin to take evasive action; only the ball hunted him down, brushing the glove and flying through to wicketkeeper Mark Boucher.

It was a prized wicket to get so early and nicely set up his second five-wickets international limited-overs haul.; five for 36 off 9.2 has a robust look about it as did Allan Donald's second four-wicket haul of the tournament. Pollock's best, against the West Indies in East London, was a wicket more at a run price label of 35.

Australia, having slipped to 68 for four in the 16th over were looking decidedly wobbly at the knees. Donald had been brought on in the 14th over, replacing Steve Elworthy and there was some uncertainty in the Aussie batting ranks.

The first ball Donald dished up Ricky Ponting tried his hand at giving catching practice to Gary Kirsten in the covers. Darren Lehmann, having squeezed out a single, had one which lifted, kissed the face of the bat and gave Mark Boucher a second catch of the innings.

When Adam Gilchrist felt it was time to get after Jacques Kallis, who had passed his fitness test, although did look a bit stiff in his first over, the fund really started. He aimed a upper-to cut at the delivery served up by the durable all-rounder and looked in horror as Donald glided in a smoothly collected another practice session effort.

For Australia it was time to dig in: batting for survival and nursing the bruised hopes back to survival and the carefully planned fielding tactics choked the scoring efforts of Steve Waugh and Michael Bevan. With Kallis and Donald bowling in tandem and later Lance Klusener, the batsmen were forced to play into the V as the inner ring cut off what few chances of a boundary there were.

Such blocking methods looked as though they had been designed and perfected in the logistical room of a military manoeuvre operation. Enter Pollock, the South African vice-captain. He knows Edgbaston well enough, having spent a season with Warwickshire in 1996 during one of Allan Donald's sabbaticals from the county scene. He was brought back by the South African captain, Hansie Cronje, who has a gut feel for making the right moves, for a two over spell. On from the pavilion  the 38th and 40th overs and in four balls  he re-arranged the response by  the Australian middle-order.

First it was Steve Waugh, or Tugga if you prefer the nicknames the Aussie enjoy labelling their players: a grit and gut innings of 56 off 76 balls. He had escaped a couple of hairy run out efforts - one by Gary Kirsten skimming past the varnish of the stumps before he had entered double figures. His wicket at that stage of the innings would have forced Australia to dig far deeper than they have done in this tournament. Pollock and Donald charged through the middle and lower order as four fell in nine balls for six runs. A remarkable collapse which seemed to have shout out Australia's final hopes.