Herschelle Gibbs, they say, dropped the 1999 World Cup. Mark Boucher may just have dropped the 2003 trophy on Sunday.

New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming was on 53 at The Wanderers when he offered the South African wicketkeeper a simple chance behind the stumps.

Boucher snatched eagerly at the ball and spilled it. A few hours and two cruel rain delays later, Fleming was completing an innings of a lifetime by hitting the winning runs through the off side.

The significance of Fleming's unbeaten 134 was not lost on his team mates, who began jogging on to the field at the end to congratulate their captain.

It's significance will not be lost on Boucher either.

South Africa, who also lost their first game against West Indies, now face a massive task just to make it to the Super Six round, let alone become the first home team to lift the trophy.

Boucher, after missing two catches and a stumping in the earlier win over Kenya, had taken a master-class from former Australia keeper Ian Healy on Friday. Healy is the holder of the record for Test dismissals by a wicketkeeper with 395.

Boucher had maintained: "I don't think there's anything wrong with my keeping at the moment...People are allowed to have bad days and I had a bad day against Kenya."

Whether the demanding, sports-mad South African public will forgive him two bad days remains to be seen.

LOST CONTROL

In 1999, Gibbs had caught Australia skipper Steve Waugh in the last game of the Super Six stage at Headingley but, starting to celebrate prematurely, somehow lost control of the ball.

Waugh had been on 56. He went on to make 120 not out. Sounds familiar?

Australia won the game by five wickets, met the South Africans again in a dramatic semi-final, tied but went through on countback. Days later, they were World Cup holders.

For a while, a rumour was accepted as fact, that Waugh had said to Gibbs that day: "You've gone and dropped the World Cup, mate."

(Waugh later put the record straight, saying that he had merely told Gibbs that his mistake would cost South Africa that Headingley game).

Gibbs scored 143 out of South Africa's 306 for six on Sunday but Boucher spoilt the day for him.

Gibbs, however, will never blame him.

He knows what it feels like to drop a World Cup. Years later, reflecting on his 1999 dropped catch, he said: "In quiet moments my mind goes back...to what happened and I break out in a cold sweat.

"I'm still suffering from flashbacks which send shivers down my spine."