Get Instant News Updates
Enable
x
Notification Settings X
Time Settings
Done
Clear Notification X
Do you want to clear all the notifications from your inbox?
Settings X
For Quick Alerts
ALLOW NOTIFICATIONS  
For Daily Alerts

South Africa dump England, meet Aussies in semi-finals

By Staff

Bridgetown, Barbados, Apr 17: Putting aside all the anxiety, South Africa confirmed their place in the semi-finals and will meet Australia at St Lucia on April 25 after vanquishing England by nine wickets in the crucial Super Eights match here today. South Africa -- and their captain Greame Smith in particular -- was in such a rampaging mood that when the winning runs were hit by Smith in the 19.2 overs, even the most cynical of England critics would have never dreamt that humiliation would be so complete.

Smith scored a blistering 89 in quick time but the man-of-the -match deservingly went to Andrew Hall who earlier destroyed England innings with his maiden five wicket haul.

Chasing a modest 155 for victory, after Hall and Andre Nel wrecking havoc England in the morning, South Africa scored in a fashion that they have an afternoon flight to catch for St Lucia.

They zoomed to 80 without losing any wicket by the ninth over and even Michael Vaughan was trying his best to hasten their humiliation by pushing Monty Panesar as early as the ninth over.

South Africa were a team possessed today and every strategy they adopted clicked although it was Vaughan who won the toss and elected to bat first. His gamble backfired and England caved in as expected and the contest was virtually over in the tenth over of the South Africa innings.

''We played too badly and everything went wrong'' was the blunt answer of Vaughan in the post match media conference not trying to be apologetic.

After Hall decimated the England lower middle order it was the turn of Smith humiliate England as he pulled, cut, and drove to race to his 27th half-century of his career.

''We played good cricket and we are ready to take on Australia.

It is nice to see Hall getting wickets,'' said Smith.

His team though gave some anxious moments to the fans, after inexplicably losing against Bangladesh and then to New Zealand making this match as a virtual knock out for them.

But it was too easy at the end and they became the fourth team to qualify for the semi-finals. Irrespective of the results of the remaining four Super Eights matches, Sri Lanka will meet New Zeeland at Kingston (Jamaica) on April 24 while South Africa play Australia next day at St Lucia.

Earlier, Hall wrecked havoc with a maiden five wicket haul as South Africa shot out England for a paltry 154 in 48 overs. Hall's best bowling performance (5/18) and along with Andre Nel's three wickets, including the prized one of Kevin Pitersen, swung the tie completely in favour of South Africa as England, giving Graeme Smith's side a victory target of 155 to book a semi-final berth.

So pathetic was England performance that their innings, in a match which promised to be a blockbuster knock out amid sell out crowd, was all over within the first ten overs itself.

South Africa found an unlikely hero in Hall who sliced through the England lower middle order picking up five wickets and giving South Africa the smallest total to chase in this World Cup. He proved to be the ultimate weapon and justified his inclusion in the team in place of Makhaya Ntini.

England, who chose to bat after winning the toss, seemed to have forgotten that they were playing a one-day match, adopting Test match strategy as if they were saving a match by playing out the remaining overs.

They hardly showed any aggression to a bowling attack, which surprisingly did not show any venom except a few occasional bouncers rising sharply from good length.

England top order once again crumbled as the opening duo failed after 10 overs of struggle, scoring nine runs in the first eight overs.

Bell perished when he tried to play the first offensive shot after facing 29 agonising deliveries. He tried to pull a ball from outside the off stump and Ashwell Prince was right there in the backward point to gleefully accept the catch.

Vaughan then did not disappoint his critics as after couple of good-looking shots, he was out LBW from the second ball of Nel.

Vaughan distinctly looked unhappy but umpire Steve Bucknor was right as per the television replays.

England's needle of hope was on Kevin Pietersen but the Proteas did not have to wait for long. Nel first softened him with some extra pacy balls, unnerving him and then returned next over to remove the world's number one ODI batsmen to leave England in tatters.

Nel's rising delivery was played uppishly by Pietersen and Smith dived forward from mid off to send back his bete noire and giving Nel the second wicket.

England's hope of a big innings went with Pitersen who had otherwise been having a very good tournament so far. That was also enough to silence the Barmy Army at the stand who were unusually silent today by their own standards.

Pietersen's exit left the responsibility to rebuild the tottering England innings on the shoulder of Andrew Strauss. He found in Paul Collingwood an able partner and both started to repair the damage.

By the second drink, they did some repairing jobs putting together 56 runs with some dogged batting never trying to be ambitious and sticking to the basics. But after the drink, Kallis brought an end to the partnership when he forced Strauss to edge to Smith.

Strauss's defiant innings of 66-ball 46 consisted two fours and one huge six. His partner Collingwood survived a couple of overs more leaving Andrew Flintoff and Ravi Boapara to once again do the rebuilding work.

But Flintoff's disastrous run with the bat continued as Hall's gentle off cutter broke every defense of him and knocked off his middle stump. So shocked was Flintoff at the turn of events that he stood on the ground trying to find out what went wrong and in fact paused his return journey to see the replay from the scoreboard.

The tail waged for some time with Bopara holding fort but at the end it was too small a total to stop South Africa from reaching the semi-finals.

UNI
Story first published: Thursday, August 24, 2017, 15:53 [IST]
Other articles published on Aug 24, 2017