The Hindu : Sport : South Africa skittled out cheaply

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Thursday, Apr 26, 2007
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South Africa skittled out cheaply

GROS ISLET (St. Lucia): Australia's pace bowlers demolished South Africa's batting in their World Cup semifinal on Wednesday, restricting the Proteas to 149 all out after 43.5 overs.

Glenn McGrath captured three for 18 and Shaun Tait four for 29 to do most of the damage as South Africa's attempt to match Australia's power-hitting game ended in dismal failure.

The raw pace of Tait and the accuracy of 37-year-old McGrath, who is only days from retirement, blew the South Africa's batsmen away.

The one-sided score would have been much worse if it had not been for a 60-run partnership between Herschelle Gibbs and Justin Kemp, who came together with the score on a humiliating 27 for five.

Gibbs made 39 and all-rounder Kemp was left on 49 not out while wickets tumbled around him.

Initial damage

McGrath did the initial damage to dismiss Jacques Kallis, Ashwell Prince and Mark Boucher. Prince and Boucher were out off successive deliveries.

The winner will play Sri Lanka on Saturday in Barbados and, barring an unlikely batting collapse, that looks set to be Australia, seeking its third successive title.

Winning the toss and batting first, the South Africans tried to match Australia's aggressive game and failed.

Nathan Bracken made the breakthrough with the third ball of his second over. South Africa captain Graeme Smith charged the left arm paceman but missed the ball, which knocked over his off stump and South Africa was 7 for 1, with the captain scoring only two.

Kallis had just scored his first boundary when McGrath tore his off stump out of the ground with a yorker to send the Australian fielders into raptures with South Africa 12 for two in the sixth over. Kallis was seen as South Africa's dangerman.

Tait strikes

De Villiers looked dangerous until Tait was brought on in the eighth over. The right-hander smacked his first ball for four but, reaching speeds of 93 miles per hour (155 kilometres per hour), Tait was too fast for the opener and he edged a drive to Adam Gilchrist behind the stumps for 15.

De Villiers had looked the most comfortable of the South African batsmen. At 26 for three, however South Africa's hopes of reaching the final were evaporating fast.

They then seemed to disappear altogether when McGrath grabbed two wickets in two balls. McGrath had been top bowler of the World Cup until Tuesday, when Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan edged past him with four wickets in the victory over New Zealand. McGrath soon corrected this with three of his own. — AP

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