New Zealand upset http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Africa-c757 to qualify for the semi-final of ICC World Cup, 2011
South Africa have been knocked out by http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Bangladesh-c747.
Chasing a target of 222 runs, the Proteas fell 49 runs short at the end. The Kiwis will now await the outcome of the match between http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sri-Lanka-c758 and England, to find out who they will face in the semi-final.
New Zealand captain, Daniel Vettori elected to bat first after winning the toss. The wicket was slow and the ball didn’t come onto the bat. It was expected that batting second would be tougher compared to the first innings.
The Kiwis didn’t get off to an ideal start, as they lost their openers Brendon McCullum and Martin Guptill early on with just 16 runs on the board.
However, Jesse Ryder and Ross Taylor batted sensibly and guided their team to a safe position. They amassed 114 runs for the third wicket before http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Taylor-c92915 got out. The veteran batsman missed out on a half-century, being dismissed on 43 off 72 balls.
Scott Styris looked comfortable in the middle, but he wasn’t able to capitalise on the start he got to his innings. The veteran all-rounder scored 16 runs from 17 balls with the help of three fours.
Ryder played brilliantly for his 83 runs off 121 balls. He would have liked to bat out the complete overs and score a ton for his team. However, he threw his wicket away at a crucial stage of the game in the 38th over.
Youngster Kane Williamson made sure that his team batted the entire 50 overs, guiding his team to a total of 221 runs. The promising middle-order player scored an unbeaten 38 runs off 41 balls.
Mornel Morkel was the pick of the bowlers for his team, as he took three wickets in the match. He got good support from http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Imran-c64193 Tahir, who grabbed two wickets each.
The South African opening pair of Graeme Smith and Hashim Amla looked to start off aggressively, but Amla got out after adding just seven runs to the total in the very first over of the innings.
First-drop Jacques Kallis constructed a 61 run stand with his captain and the team looked in a very safe position. However, Smith gave his wicket away after scoring 28 runs from 34 balls in the 14th over.
Kallis top scored the Proteas innings with 47 runs; the veteran player was batting comfortably before he was caught spectacularly in the deep, by Jacob Oram in the 24th over.
Things changed dramatically when two of the best South African batsmen, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/AB-de-Villiers-c887, got out in quick succession in the same over. The Proteas were suddenly looking in danger with just 121 runs on the board for the loss of 5 wickets.
The Proteas collapsed after that and all team was out for 172 in 43.2 overs. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Faf-du-Plessis-c1427 tried his best to take his team to the next round, but he didn’t have much support from the other end. The promising youngster managed 36 runs off 43 balls before getting out.
Oram was declared the Man of the Match following his spectacular bowling spell: the tall seamer took four wickets for his team and he got good support from off-spinner Nathan McCullum, who scalped three wickets.
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