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Posted by BV Swagath on April 17, 2007 (Link to Scorecard)

The Proteas brutalized a rattled England to become the fourth semi finalists. In a virtual Quarter-Final at the wicked Barbados, South Africa handed over an embarrassing defeat to the Poms. The South African bowlers ran through the English innings and the chase which was of only 155 was smashed in just 19.2 overs!

The out of form Michael Vaughan was put into a tricky situation as he won the toss. The optimistic skipper decided to take first strike on the fastest and bounciest pitch of the World Cup hoping that his team could get 220-240 on the board. The Proteas dropped the out of rhythm Makhaya Ntini to open the attack with Pollock and Langeveldt. There were lot of playing and missing but England didn't lose any wicket till the 8th over when Bell wanted to break the shackles with a forceful pull only to be caught off the bowling of Langeveldt. The score had gone nowhere with just the 9 on the board at the exit of Bell, who got 7 of them! Michael Vaughan's dreadful form continued, this time he managed 17 before being plumb in front to Andre Nel. But the biggest wicket of the day was probably that of Kevin Pietersen (3 from 15) whose leading edge was brilliantly taken by Graeme Smith diving forward at mid off. It was Andre Nel taking this vital wicket to have England at 53 for 3 in the 17th over.

A half century stand between Strauss and Collingwood raised hopes for England to put up a decent total on the board. But nobody was sure what kind of a score was defendable on a track that had lot of spice. The English batsmen were constantly tortured with short deliveries that took off like jumbo jets while some of the deliveries didn't get up as expected. Kallis was the man who broke the partnership by inducing Strauss to cut one into the hands of the fourth slip fielder! Strauss departed after battling out for 67 balls to score 46 from 67 balls which included a pull for a six. Collingwood and Flintoff both fell at the wrong time, in the second spell of Andrew Hall in which he had got the ball to reverse swing and skid off the surface. It was incredible to watch Mark Boucher stand up to the stumps despite Hall generating speeds of 135kmph! While Collingwood (30 from 57) got an unplayable delivery that found him dead in front of middle, Flintoff got bowled through the gate after being set up to drive through the up. England with that double blow slipped to a hopeless 119 for 6.

A special partnership between Ravi Bopara and Paul Nixon wasn't going to be allowed today with the wicket keeper batsman poking one that was slanting across his offstump. It was once again Andrew Hall the bowler! A 23-run stubborn partnership over 7 overs between Ravi Bopara and Monty Panesar saw England get atleast 154. They were bowled out in 48 overs with Ravi Bopara stranded at 27 not out. Andrew Hall with the final ball of his final over got Anderson lbw to not only bowl out England but also to get his first five wicket haul. The figures of 10-2-18-5 were the best from a South African in World Cup beating the previous best of 5/21 by Zulu Klusener. Andre Nel helped himself with three wickets while Langeveldt and Kallis picked up a wicket each. Pollock bowled a miserly spell of none for 17 in his 10.

The approach from the two opening batsmen - AB de Villiers and Graeme Smith was quite obvious, it was to go after the bowling and never allow England to come back into the match. The two inexperienced new ball pair of Jimmy Anderson and Saj Mahmood got the stick right from the first ball they bowled. For the opening batsmen, the conditions were perfect with the ball coming onto the bat nicely and the bowlers not hitting the right areas consistently. AB de Villiers packed a punch in all his shots and he left Graeme Smith behind by racing away with 8 fours. His innings was cut short to 4 from 35 before he fell after not getting on top of the bounce in his square cut off Flintoff. It was a caught behind and probably one of the very few good deliveries from the English bowlers. Freddie had come in for Sajid Mahmood who was bludgeoned for 28 runs in his 2 overs! AB de Villiers was dismissed with the score already at 85 in nearly 10 overs.

Michael Vaughan had tried his luck with Monty Panesar but he was smashed for 24 runs in his two overs to be taken out of the attack. The match was wrapped up in the 20th over with Graeme Smith playing an intimidating knock of 89 from just 58 balls, often giving the fast bowlers the charge. His innings was powered with 13 fours. Had England got those extra 20 runs or so, Graeme Smith would have got his hundred, what a pity that he couldn't get there! For the record, Jacques Kallis was the other batsman who was onto 17 from 25. England didn't deserve to be in the Semis, they flopped miserably in all the three departments of the game. The Proteas finish at no.4 in the table and would be heading to St Lucia to face Australia most likely in the second semi final.

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