Related Links

April 25, 2007 (Link to Scorecard)

The much desired South African Challenge came to nothing when it came to the big Semi Final against the World Champs Australia at the Beausejour Stadium in St Lucia. A dismal show from the top order batsmen of SA got themselves kicked out of the contest in the first hour itself and with that Australia completed what was a jolly ride to a seven-wicket win with nearly 19 overs to spare. The Proteas never could bounce back having put up a paltry target of 150. Disappointingly it was yet another pale one-sided affair! It's now up to Sri Lanka if they can stop the Aussies from clinching their hat-trick of World Cup titles during the Final on the 28th.

Proteas have been called as 'Chokers' as their batting tends to collapse while chasing under pressure. Graeme Smith for that reason perhaps decided to take first strike once he won the toss. A moment of madness saw him give the charge to Nathan Bracken while he was facing just his fifth delivery only to be beaten by the swing and get clean bowled. Now that was a big wicket, interestingly Kallis, who is a reliable batsman followed his skipper's approach and was also a failure. Kallis also played a predetermined stroke, he was yorked by Glenn McGrath. It was a good move from Ponting to open the bowling with McGrath instead of Tait which got the pressure to be sustained at both ends. In no time, South Africa slipped to a hopeless 27 for 5 in the 10th over!

The slump began when AB de Villiers was set up to feather an edge to a harmless delivery from Tait outside the off. The opening batsman was looking good having got 15 from 34 with three fours. It was 26 for 3 and the next over from Glenn McGrath saw the wickets of Prince and Boucher go down in consecutive deliveries. While Prince had a nervous reach to a wide delivery, Boucher got a magical delivery that induced the nick to have McGrath on a hat-trick which was denied by Justin Kemp. Herschelle Gibbs was very lucky, he should have been given caught behind after getting an inside edge off McGrath. He rode his luck and was determined to make amends for the costly mistake he had committed eight years back. In the company of Kemp, Gibbs put on a fight but like AB de Villiers, opened the face of the blade away from his body to be caught behind off Tait. South Africa were 87 for 6 with Gibbs making 39 from 49 with 6 fours.

The all rounders Andrew Hall and Shaun Pollock couldn't last long and it was all upto Justin Kemp to get some sort of respectability. All he could do was to get 49 unbeaten runs as if he ran out of partners. He did get support from Nel for the ninth wicket partnership which lasted nearly 10 overs. Kemp played out 91 balls and had got 4 fours and a six off a hook shot. SA folded to 149 in 43.5 overs with Shaun Tait taking his career best figures of 4 for 39 in 10. The damage at the top was done by Glenn McGrath with 3 for 18 in 8.

There wasn't enough firepower in the South African attack to bowl out the Aussies under 149. But Charl Langeveldt did raise the spirits by swinging one late back into Gilchrist to disturb his stumps with his first delivery. It was just the second over of the innings, but that was all the bowlers would be getting for a while. With nothing happening, Graeme Smith had to use as many as four bowlers with just over 8 overs gone. Andre Nel came in and was lucky to get the wicket of Ponting in the 9th over to have Aus at 44 for 2. Ponting by then had creamed five fours in his 22 from 25 before he played all around a straight delivery onto the stumps. Matthew Hayden and Michael Clarke didn't do anything silly, they took their time in the middle, had good practice and steadily took Australia close to 150. Hayden eventually ran out of patience, trying to go for the big one was caught by Graeme Smith off Pollock. Hayden was dismissed for 41 which came in 60 balls with 4 fours.

The remaining 40 runs were got at run-a-ball by Clarke (60* from 86 with 8 fours) and Symonds (18 from 16 with 3 fours). It was the 25th ODI fifty for Clarke and the target of 150 was wrapped up in 31.3 overs. Glenn McGrath won the race for the Man of the Match award beating Shaun Tait.

Top of the Page