http://www.senore.com/Cricket/ICC-World-Cup-2011-c100625 World Twenty20 - South Africa's performance - An Overview - Part VI
Continued from Part V .....
With a reasonable target ahead of them, South Africa needed to bat with some plan and maturity in order to avoid another defeat, however, the main problem for them was to beat http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750 by a comprehensive margin in order to make their way into the semi-final.
While for India, it was imperative to win the match well before the final over otherwise their arch nemesis http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 would go through.
India made inroads on the second delivery of their innings when they nabbed the prized wicket of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/HM-Amla-c1557, who - in this important game – fell without scoring a run.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Allan-Robert-Border-c43726 promoted himself up the order as he came in at number-three while Kallis was already sent to open the batting.
Fans had attached hopes with this pair, however, the veteran batsmen took the score to only 16 before Kallis, who had a terrible tournament, lost his wicket for six.
The skipper was then joined by F du Plessis and the pair steered the side to 46 before AB perished after bolstering 13 off 13.
F du Plessis then lost his wicket after smashing a resilient innings of 65 off 38 deliveries to cause some concern in the Indian camp. At the time of this wicket, South Africa had managed to pile 95 runs.
Then with 107 on the board, middle-order batsman http://www.senore.com/Cricket/JP-Duminy-c1742 became the next victim, losing his wicket after scoring 16 runs.
F Behardien and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/RJ-Peterson-c2332 then batted their side to 127 before Behardien hit the showers after scoring 13 runs.
RJ Peterson and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/JA-Morkel-c1613 then hammered ten runs before walking off the field.
At one point the game was evenly balanced, nonetheless, India prevailed but the victory came late enough to help Pakistan go through.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Africa-c757 on the other hand, managed to post 151 runs in 19.5 overs.
Failing to win their final game of the tournament, AB, unable to place the blame on anyone said, “Disappointed isn't the word to describe it, we've had a poor tournament. We've let the country down and that's what hurts most. We did all the preparation
possible, we thought we were ready but the guys didn't click."
The Indian skipper, Dhoni was equally disappointed as only one bad game (against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746) cost his side a place in the semi-final.
“If you take the Australia game out, where the rain intervened, we performed brilliantly and can't have control over how other teams played. Overall I'm quite happy with how the team performed. There were instances where we should have had 10-15 runs more
on the board. We lost too many wickets early," reckoned Dhoni.
Although it was a tough call for South Africa to make a comeback in the tournament by grabbing a huge victory, nonetheless, the Proteas gave a strong fight in the match and almost had the Indians trapped in a corner.
With the South Africans all set to begin their latest season, AB would be aiming to right the wrongs done in the ICC World Twenty20 and improve the standard of the team.
The upcoming Test series against Australia beginning from November 09, will be a huge test for South Africa.
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