South Africa v Ireland: Graeme Smith and company secure the quarter-final berth
In an important group B match of the ICC Cricket World Cup, 2011 at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata, Ireland was thrashed by the Proteas by a huge margin of 131 runs.
There are contrasting fortunes for both teams after this result as South Africa have reached the quarter-final stage of the tournament after this win, whereas the Irish dreams of playing the quarter-finals of the tournament have been shattered.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Johan-Botha-c67173 showed that they can still accumulate a lot of runs in the depth overs of the innings. This is a very good sign for the South Africans as they have been heavily dependent on their top order to deliver the goods for them and the failure of the top order turned out to be a blessing in disguise for them as the late order was tested.
Proteas are having a wonderful tournament so far as they have some tremendous balance in both the departments of the game and are full of versatile players. Such is the bench strength of Graeme Smith and company that their two premier players AB de Villiers and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Imran-c64193 Tahir were not able to take part in this fixture, but they still defeated the Irish team quite comprehensively.
Colin Ingram was brought in the side for the injured http://www.senore.com/Cricket/AB-de-Villiers-c887 and he played a brilliant cameo under trying circumstances. He along with JP Duminy held things together for South Africa and made sure that their team does not crumble under pressure. Duminy was unlucky to be dismissed on 99 as he richly deserved a hundred. He was named as the Man of the Match for his match winning ton.
South African captain expressed his disappointment on the run out of some of his top order batsmen but did praise the efforts of Duminy and Ingram. Smith said after the match that, "I think you can always nitpick, but there were some good signs today. We put ourselves under pressure with some stupid run outs but the guys responded really well after that, especially JP [Duminy] who batted really well under pressure. He really held things together, and then Colin Ingram, who hasn't played for a while, came in and batted well."
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Ireland-c751 on the other would be very disappointed with this result as they had the South African on mat at one stage before the allowed them off the hook. It was a must win encounter for the Irish because of their outside chance of qualifying for the next round but they failed to grab the opportunity, however Ireland have a lot of positives to take from this tournament as they did give a tough time to almost all of their opponents.
Irish captain William Porterfield said during the presentation ceremony that he was satisfied midway through the match but his batsmen could not counter one of the best bowling attacks of the world.
"We’ve shown competitive spirit, in a lot of the games we kept ourselves in the game. We've got a lot of positives from this tournament," Irish captain said after the match.
Now the Proteas look all set to finish at number one spot in their group which means that they will take on the weaker team of the other group in the quarter-final. They have definitely emerged as one of the strongest candidates for the most prestigious trophy of world cricket. Let’s wait and watch to see whether the Africans choke in this tournament or not.
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