South Africa does it with ease

Photo: AP

South Africa notched up their fourth win in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 as they beat United Arab Emirates by 146 runs in their final game in the group stage at Wellington. South Africa made sure that there was no complication regarding their qualification with this emphatic victory over the Arabs who have failed to win a single match till now.

Today they won the toss and put the mighty South Africans into bat. South Africa capitalized on the opportunity and posted a huge total of 341/6 in 50 overs. AB De Villiers failed to score his second century of the tournament as he got out on 99. Behardien played an excellent innings down to order scoring 64 off just 31 balls. His innings included 3 huge hits over the fence and five boundaries. David Miller also played well for his 49 but missed his half century for just 1 run. All the UAE bowlers returned with expensive figures except Mohammad Taqir who gave away 47 runs in his 10 overs and picked up the wicket of Rossouw. Mohammad Naveed picked up 4 wickets but gave away too many runs in his 10 overs.

UAE, as they came on to chase the target set by South Africa, never looked like reaching there. Wickets at regular interval did not help their cause either. In the end they got all out for 195. Shaiman Anwar, the most promising among the UAE players scored 37 while Patil remained unbeaten till the end with 57. Others just had no answer to South Africa’s bowling attack. For South Africa, Philander and Morne Morkel picked up couple of wickets while Steyn, Duminy and Imran Tahir had 1 each beside their name in the end. The surprise package was AB De Villiers who picked up 2 wickets with the ball after his 99 with the bat.

De Villiers’s all round show set up a commanding victory for South Africa as they are almost confirmed to take the second spot in the points table in Pool B, just behind India. In the quarterfinal they will perhaps be up against Sri Lanka keeping mind the fact that Australia will win their last match against Scotland.

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About Argha Ghosh

An ardent follower of sports and die-hard Manchester United fan, Argha's ultimate dream is to watch a Manchester derby from the Stretford End at the Old Trafford.