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Ruthless South Africa storms into semifinals

S. Ram Mahesh

Andrew Hall dishes out an excellent spell of reverse swing bowling

Bridgetown: The World Cup will have its four best teams in the semifinals after all.

Any thoughts England may have had of sneaking past with a surreptitiously-obtained golden ticket were dismissed clinically, ruthlessly, and — in an adjective rarely used for South Africa's cricket for whatever reason — skilfully.

Graeme Smith and A.B. de Villiers came out with inexorable purpose to end what their bowlers had started by ravaging England for 154.

Forty-four came in the first five overs — "At this stage England were ... five without loss," said the PA system in a faux British accent — and the victory less than 15 overs later.

Onslaught

De Villiers stroked some astounding boundaries in his 42, each a product of the hand-eye co-ordination of an exceptional all-round athlete; Smith was more robust, clearing his feet to mow to cow corner or hit straight. He ended with a 58-ball 89 comprising 13 bruising fours. The attack was overmastering.

TAKE THAT: Graeme Smith can't hide his emotions after scoring the winning shot and booking his team's place in the semifinals. — PHOTO: AP

Andrew Flintoff, who pegged away, got de Villiers to nick a fine, cramping delivery, but 85 had been made, and England saw the wicket as alleviating rather than inspiring.

By the time Smith ended matters by hitting Sajid Mahmood straight for four and throwing his arms up in relief, England was being roundly booed off the Kensington Oval.

Sad day

"It's a very sad day for English cricket," said captain Michael Vaughan. "It was an awful feeling to be booed, but rightly so. At 111 for three, we had 230-240 on the cards, that was the strategy. Unfortunately the way the story unfolded we had one of our famous collapses." From 111 for three, England fell to 121 for eight. Andrew Hall picked up four during this phase in what his captain called "a great spell of reverse swing."

Hall, who won the Man of the Match, was self-effacing. "We just kept the pressure, and it was my day to cash in," he said before explaining how he did it. "Well, my first spell I thought was just conventional in-swing with the breeze pushing it that way, but with the second, I felt it was tailing in just a bit, and it was definitely reverse swing." England, through Andrew Strauss and Paul Collingwood, had survived a period Smith called "clinical pressure", but capitulated to Hall after Jacques Kallis got the crucial wicket of Strauss.

"We were fully aware of what Hall could produce," said Vaughan on why the side was undone by the ball coming in. "It's always difficult for a new guy coming in to face reverse swing. We saw plenty of videos, in fact we may have seen too many. It takes away from the instinct of just reacting to the ball. But, yeah, we knew exactly what he was up to." England's defeat is expected to stir things up at home, even though the one-day format isn't accorded as much Sturm und Drang as Test cricket.

"It's been a disappointing six months with the Champions Trophy and the Ashes," said Vaughan.

"We smiled our ways back to the flight on the back of four wins in the CB series, and I firmly believed we had a chance in the World Cup. I firmly believed we had the talent to do well. But, we have to sit down, look within, and find out why we haven't produced good one-day cricket since 1992. I'm not stupid, I know my form is an area of concern. But, if my captaincy is holding up ... " It'll be part of many conversations over the next few days.

What's in store

Also in line for soul searching is South Africa. The side's trouble this World Cup has centred around adapting its batting and getting its bowling mix right on slow and low pitches: almost certainly, South Africa will play Australia in St. Lucia, the slowest wicket in the Caribbean.

South Africa needs to determine the role the conditions here played in Tuesday's win — were the cracks in its cricket repaired or merely wallpapered over because of the pace and bounce in the Kensington Oval track? "That's the challenge," said Smith. "It's a semifinal and anything can happen in a semifinal. But, today (on Tuesday) other than the early shape and the bounce, the things we did were pretty simple, we bowled the same areas we would bowl (on a slower track). But, I think this (late qualification) is good. The team is on a high, the momentum is good, and had we cruised along, we wouldn't have been exposed to realities."

SCOREBOARD

England: I. Bell c Prince b Langeveldt 7, M. Vaughan lbw b Nell 17, A. Strauss c Smith b Kallis 46, K. Pietersen c Smith b Nell 3, P. Collingwood lbw b Hall 30, A. Flintoff b Hall 5, R. Bopara (not out) 27, P. Nixon c Boucher b Hall 1, S. Mahmood b Hall 0, M. Panesar c Boucher b Nell 2, J. Anderson lbw b Hall 0; Extras (b-4, lb-4, nb-3, w-5) 16; Total (in 48 overs) 154.

Fall of wickets: 1-9, 2-37, 3- 53, 4-111, 5-115, 6-119, 7-121, 8-121, 9-144.

South Africa bowling: Pollock 10-2-17-0, Langeveldt 7-1- 38-1, Nel 10-3-35-3, Hall 10-2- 18-5, Kallis 8-0-22-1, Kemp 3-0-16-0.

South Africa: A.B. de Villiers c Nixon b Flintoff 42, G. Smith (not out) 89, J. Kallis (not out) 17; Extras (b-4, nb-2, w-3) 9; Total (for one wkt. in 19.2 overs) 157. Fall of wicket: 1-85.

England bowling: Anderson 5-0-32-0, Mahmood 4.2-0-49-0, Flintoff 6-0-36-1, Panesar 2-0- 24-0, Collingwood 2-0-12-0.

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