South Africa's A.B. de Villiers celebrates his century against the West Indies in Grenada yesterday. - Dellmar photoTony Becca, Contributing Editor
ST. GEORGE'S, Grenada:
THE WEST Indies hopes of winning the World Cup for a third time and becoming the first home team to win it on home soil went up in smoke before a near full house in the lovely Queens Park stadium here yesterday.
Going into the match after three defeats in the second-round Super Eights of cricket's showpiece, the West Indies, with a mere two points, needed to win the game to keep alive whatever hope they may still have entertained to make it to the semi-finals and then to the final on the way to winning the title.
That, however, was not to be.
Instead of winning the match, the West Indies were soundly beaten by South Africa to make it four defeats in four matches.
Batting first after the West Indies had won the toss and sent them to bat, South Africa, probably still smarting from their surprising loss to Bangladesh on Saturday, simply mauled the West Indies, whose bowlers were caned mercilessly as the number two one-day team in the world skipped to 356 for four off their allotted 50 overs and then restricted the home team to 289 for nine off their 50 overs with Devon Smith, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Daren Powell entertaining the gathering with 33, 92, and 48 not out respectively.
Just about dead
Yesterday's defeat meant that with Australia on eight points with three matches to play - including one against Ireland, with New Zealand on eight points with three matches to play, with Sri Lanka on six points with three matches to play - including one against Ireland, and with South Africa on six with two to play, the West Indies, on two only and with only two to play, are just about dead and waiting to be buried.
With South Africa to play New Zealand and England, with England on two with Bangladesh, South Africa and the West Indies to play, however it is only as good as a snowball in hell, there is still a chance, still some hope, for the Windies.
If the West Indies can win their two remaining matches and move to six points, if South Africa lose their two remaining matches and stay on six points, and if England also defeat Bangladesh as they should, the West Indies could squeeze through.
Would take a miracle
With all three teams then finishing on six points, however, with all three teams then losing four matches each, the tiebreaker would be net run rate, and even then, it would take something of a miracle for the once mighty Windies to climb out of the grave.
On a day which started out with light drizzle and ended up in brilliant sunshine, South Africa, led by A.B. de Villiers and Jacques Kallis, and then by Herschelle Gibbs and Mark Boucher paraded all the strokes in the book and many outside of it as their shots, whistling out of the meat of their bats, echoed around the ground like gun shots - or more appropriately, like the crack of a whip.
Batting like he had never batted before in his life, the 23-year-old de Villiers, in ticking off his first one-day century, stroked and smashed 12 fours and five sixes, while scoring 146 off 129 deliveries before, suffering from cramps, he was caught by Shivnarine Chanderpaul at leg gully off pacer Corey Collymore at 261 for three, and batting also like he probably had never batted before in his life, the 31-year-old Kallis, criticised so often for batting too slowly in one-day games, stroked and blasted five fours and four sixes, while smashing 81 off 85 deliveries in a second-wicket partnership of 170 with de Villiers.
On a day when 23 fours and 17 sixes were hit in South Africa's innings, a day when the ball landed like missiles among the spectators in the stands, Gibbs and Boucher, batting as they had done on many occasions in the past, shared a fourth-wicket partnership of 86 in 6.1 overs.
The West Indies bowlers were so manhandled that 134 runs came off the last 10 overs, that captain Brian Lara did not go for the third power play until the start of the 45th over, and that 77 runs came off those five overs.
Set a target of 357 runs at 7.12 runs per over, the West Indies did not have a chance.
We played bad cricket - Lara
ST GEORGE'S, Grenada (Reuters):
DEJECTED WEST Indies captain Brian Lara said his team had played "bad cricket" in the World Cup, failed to handle the pressure and did not deserve to make it to the semi-finals.
The World Cup hosts were all but out of the competition after their 67-run defeat by South Africa yesterday, their fourth straight loss in the second-stage Super Eights.
"We did not act well at all. It is hard to sit here and pinpoint exactly where we went wrong, other than the fact that if you look at the stats of the games we were beaten badly by better teams," Lara told a post-match news conference.
Only a series of freak results could save his team and Lara accepted that would not happen.
"We are very disappointed, and we are sad that we have disappointed the people of the Caribbean, and people who support us around the world.
"We feel it a lot and we know that the man in the street is definitely disappointed. When we go to training we see people waving and we understand what cricket means to them and we would not go out, not wanting to perform.
"It just happens that we have played bad cricket and we have to hold our hands up and say, yes, we played bad cricket and we don't deserve to be in the semi-finals, and to our people, sorry about that and let's hope we can pick ourselves up," said Lara.
Losing streak
His team had won all three of their group games before successive losses to Australia, New Zealand and Sri Lanka in the round-robin Super Eights.
As well as accepting that his side had been "outclassed" by South Africa, Lara said that in their four defeats his team had failed to show the character needed to handle the expectation that surrounded them as hosts.
"We did not stand up to the pressure, it is as simple as that. There is already that feeling that host nations don't do well, but under the pressure of the World Cup. We did not stand up very well to it," he said.
Lara, 37, had said before the tournament that he would be standing down from one-day games and said he was sad that he was unable to go out in better style.
"It is definitely a huge disappointment. It is a situation where you are playing your last few one-dayers and you hope you are going to play in a World Cup semi-final or final, to me I am hugely disappointed.
"I've had a very fruitful career, I've enjoyed playing for West Indies in the one-day arena and I will continue to enjoy for the next couple of games.
"But what is more important is the state of the younger players who have to carry forward the team," he said.
Asked whether the side's poor showing at the World Cup had led him to consider his future as Test captain too, Lara said: "I'm going to be in the World Cup for the next two games and I'm not going to talk about that part of it.
"The end of the World Cup is maybe the best time to talk about it".
The West Indies, whose predecessors won the first two World Cups in 1975 and 1979, travel to Barbados for the final two matches against Bangladesh (April 19) and then England (April 21).
South Africa innings
| G. Smith c Ramdin b Collymore | 7 |
A.B. de Villiers c Chanderpaul b Collymore | 146 |
| J. Kallis b Gayle | 81 |
| H. Gibbs not out | 61 |
| M. Boucher c&b Bravo | 52 |
| S. Pollock not out | 0 |
| Extras: (3lb, 6w) | 9 |
| TOTAL (for four wkts - 50 overs): | 356 |
Fall: 1-21, 2-191, 3-261, 4-347. Bowling: Corey Collymore 10-0-41-2 (3w), Daren Powell 10-0-78-0 (1w), Ian Bradshaw 10-0-73-0 (2w), Dwayne Bravo 7-0-69-1, Chris Gayle 6-0-42-1, Ramnaresh Sarwan 4-0-30-0, Kieron Pollard 3-0-20-0. West Indies innings C. Gayle run out (Prince) | 32 |
| S. Chanderpaul c Smith b Pollock | 4 |
| D. Smith c de Villiers b Nel | 33 |
| B. Lara b Kallis | 21 |
| R. Sarwan c Pollock b Ntini | 92 |
| D. Bravo c Gibbs b Pollock | 6 |
| K. Pollard b Kallis | 10 |
| D. Ramdin c sub (Peterson) b Smith | 4 |
| I. Bradshaw c Hall b Smith | 20 |
| D. Powell not out | 48 |
| C. Collymore not out | 12 |
| Extras: (4lb, 3w) | 7 |
| TOTAL: (for nine wkts - 50 overs) | 289 |
Fall: 1-5, 2-65, 3-69, 4-119, 5-142, 6-169, 7-181, 8-213, 9-255. Bowling: Shaun Pollock 8-0-33-2, Makhaya Ntini 10-1-57-1, Andre Nel 10-0-54-1, Andrew Hall 9-0-49-0 (2w), Jacques Kallis 8-0-36-2, Graeme Smith 5-0-56-2 (1w). Result: South Africa won by 67 runs. STANDINGS
| P | W | T | L | NR | Pts |
| New Zealand | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 |
| Australia | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 |
| Sri Lanka | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 6 |
| South Africa | 5 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 6 |
| England | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 2 |
| West Indies | 5 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 2 |
| Bangladesh | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 2 |
| Ireland | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0
|
