Aussies skittle out South Africa for 149

Beausejour, St. Lucia, Apr 25 (UNI) Glenn McGrath and Shaun Tait ran through the South Africa batting lineup to skittle them out for a paltry 149 in the cricket World Cup second semi-final here today.

South Africa surrendered before Australia like minnows in one of their worst performances in the recent times. There was no resistance, no fight back or no dogged batting display as the Proteas played like novices.

At one stage, South Africa looked they were in a hurry to end their humiliation, which was resisted actually by Aussie captain Ricky Ponting by helping his bowlers to share the spoils.

Had it not been Justin Kemp, South Africa would have had nothing to bowl at and it was he and Herschelle Gibbs who gave something for the second half.

Kemp remained not out on 49 and was the only innings to mention about besides that of Gibbs who scored 39 runs. Tait completed another four-wicket haul while McGrath picked three. Brad Hogg, Nathan Bracken and Shane Watson scalped one wicket each.

South Africa's decision to bat first boomeranged as they were decimated within the 10 overs as a mixture of Bracken, McGrath and Tait made sure they had the perfect start in the match taking five wickets with the scoreboard reading just 27.

The South African fans were stunned to see their team capitulating even before the battle began and lost their famed top order for a score which was generally their score after three overs.

When Graeme Smith lost his off stump to Bracken, not a single soul in the stadium could believe what was to come in the next seven overs. But a 25 minutes of madness saw South Africa blown away to the Atlantic.

Jacques Kallis was then clean bowled by McGrath. In an inexplicable display of momentary madness, Kallis chased McGrath and dismissed while trying to slash it over point.

Australia sensed the match was under their control but never realised that it would be under their pocket in the next two overs as South Africa displayed some ridiculous batting.

Tait, after being brought in the ninth over, was welcomed to the crease by a thumping boundary by de Villlers but two balls later Tait had his revenge as his extra pace forced de Villiers edged a delivery to Adam Gilchrist's hands.

But there was more drama to follow. McGrath, surprising his own teammates in his penultimate match of his long career, went for the kill and his next over saw Ashwell Prince playing his fourth delivery, went for a wild swipe and it was well over.

With four down for 27, everybody sat back and stretched their legs expecting a dogged resistance from South Africa's lower middle order. But that was not to be. Next ball saw the demise of Mark Boucher, a rare first ball duck.

After that nobody had any interest in cricket and the match was all over as Gibbs started a brief battle along with Justin Kemp to draw out South Africa from the ultimate humiliation of getting out within 50 runs.

He succeeded and with Kemp brought the score to 87. In the process he showed that stroke play was actually possible and Australia can be resisted with some cricketing brains not with sheer power. Even Kemp succeeded to a great extent and became the top scorer of his team.

Gibbs gifted his own wicket when he went for fishing outside the off stump and Tait was too smart to leave such an opportunity forcing a regulation caught behind. After that it was once again procession which never stopped and eventually South Africa's innings ended one run short of 150.

UNI