Australia's captain, Ricky Ponting, gestures to the crowd after his team beat South Africa by seven wickets in their World Cup semi-final in St. Lucia yesterday. - ReutersTony Becca, Contributing Editor
GROS ISLET, St. Lucia:
AUSTRALIA, THE mighty men in gold from Down Under and the defending champions, underlined their claim as favourites to win the 2007 Cricket World Cup title when they stormed into the final with a devastating bowling performance in the Beausejour Stadium on the outskirts of Castries here yesterday.
Urged on by a good crowd, 50 per cent of which, based on the colour of their dress, appeared to be Aussies, they crushed South Africa, the number two ranked one-day team in the world, the one-time second favourites to win the title, and easily, almost effortlessly, won a match, scheduled to last for 50 overs a side, with seven wickets and 18.3 overs to spare.
Bowling first in brilliant sunshine, Australia, led by pacers Nathan Bracken - one for 15 off seven overs, Glenn McGrath - three for 18 off eight and Shaun Tait - four for 39 off 10, ripped out South Africa for a meagre 149 in 43.5 overs and then, almost without breaking a sweat in the afternoon sun, with Matthew Hayden, 41, Ricky Ponting, 22, and Michael Clarke, 60 not out, stroking the ball confidently and exquisitely, danced to victory at 153 for three off 31.3 overs.
Mismatch
The contest, or rather the mismatch, was, for all intents and purposes, over long before Andrew Symonds, 18 not out, drove pacer Andrew Hall off his pads to the square-leg boundary at 4.12 p.m. to signal the end of the one-sided affair.
The match, the no-contest, was over bar the shouting inside the first 50 minutes, to the disappointment of the three or four hundred South Africans at the ground - including former captain and managing director of the United Cricket Board of South Africa, Dr. Ali Bacher. Thescoreboard read 27 for five after 47 minutes in 9.4 overs with captain Graeme Smith, Jacques Kallis, A.B. de Villiers, Ashwell Prince and Mark Boucher all in and out and back in the dressing room.
Batting first after they had won the toss and decided to bat on a pitch with a hint of grass and a tinge of green, South Africa, up against the left-handed Bracken and the wily McGrath, under pressure and on the way to their lowest ever total in a World Cup match from the opening over, were one down at seven in the third over when the left-handed Smith, on two, ambitiously drove at Bracken bowling over the wicket and lost his off-stump.
Five runs and three overs later, it was 12 for two when Kallis, after a wonderful cover-drive off McGrath, went back and away to the next delivery, left his wicket unprotected, attempted to drive the ball through the covers and was bowled by a well-pitched delivery.
Edged low catch
Fourteen runs and three overs later, after a hook off McGrath and a pull off Tait, de Villiers made it 26 for three when he attempted to drive Tait and edged a low catch to wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist; and in the next over, in two deliveries, it was 27 for four and then 27 for five with the first powerplay not yet completed.
With McGrath getting the ball to move off the seam, the left-handed Ashwell Prince, probably confused by the ace pace bowler's manipulation of the ball and his ability to move it both ways, carelessly drove at a wide delivery and edged a catch to Gilchrist before he had scored.
And, but for one more delivery, the scoreboard had not changed when the usually defiant Boucher was on his way - the batsman reaching forward, searching for the ball and edging a catch to Hayden in the slips.
At that stage, the ship, partly due to some lovely bowling and partly due to some careless and reckless strokes, was sinking fast and it was left to Herschelle Gibbs, 39, and Justin Kemp, 49 not out, with a stroke-filled sixth-wicket partnership of 60 runs in 13 overs, to bring some respectability to the performance - to save South Africa from total embarrassment.
Gibbs, driving the ball nicely off the front-foot, thrilled the fans with two lovely strokes off Tait - one to long off and one to cover - before he failed to move his feet, pushed at a wide delivery from the big pacer, edged a catch into the safe hands of Gilchrist and walked away at 87 for six in the 23rd over.
Choked
On a day when South Africa once again choked on the big occasion, Kemp, who faced 91 deliveries, stroked four and hit the one six of the innings - a glorious stroke over square-leg off medium-pacer Shane Watson - also fought courageously before, after joining the action with his team on the skids at 27 for five, he was left stranded when last man Charl Langeveldt, after he was dropped by Tait off Watson on the mid-wicket boundary, pulled away, attempted to cut the big medium-pacer and was bowled.
Left a target of 150 in all of 50 overs, Australia hopped to victory with Hayden, Ponting and Clarke, who hit eight fours while batting for 86 deliveries, all stroking the ball confidently.
To South Africa's credit they fought all the way and gave their supporters a little hope when Langeveldt bowled Gilchrist for zero at one for one with his first delivery.
Although they picked up two more wickets - Ponting bowled by Andre Nel at 44 for two, and Hayden caught by Smith at long-off off Shaun Pollock at 110 for three in the 25th over - the result was never in doubt as Australia cruised into the sixth World Cup final where they will meet Sri Lanka, in their second after a successful first 11 years ago, at Kensington Oval on Saturday.
Yesterday's victory, their second against South Africa during the tournament, made it a perfect 10 from 10 for Australia with one to go.
South Africa innings
| G. Smith b Bracken | 2 |
| A.B. de Villiers c Gilchrist b Tait | 15 |
| J. Kallis b McGrath | 5 |
| H. Gibbs c Gilchrist b Tait | 39 |
| A. Prince c Gilchrist b McGrath | 0 |
| M. Boucher c Hayden b McGrath | 0 |
| J. Kemp not out | 49 |
| A. Hall c Gilchrist b Tait | 3 |
| S. Pollock c&b Hogg | 5 |
| A. Nel c Clarke b Tait | 8 |
| C. Langeveldt b Watson | 6 |
| Extras (13w, 4lb) | 17 |
| TOTAL (all out - 43.5 overs) | 149 |
Fall: 1-7, 2-21, 3-26, 4-27, 5-27, 6-87, 7-93, 8-103, 9-130, 10-149 Bowling: Nathan Bracken 7-2-15-1, Glenn McGrath 8-1-18-3 (1w), Shaun Tait 10-0-39-4 (9w), Shane Watson 8.5-0-49-1, Brad Hogg 10-2-24-1 (3w). Australia innings A. Gilchrist b Langeveldt | 1 |
| M. Hayden c Smith b Pollock | 41 |
| R. Ponting b Nel | 22 |
| M. Clarke not out | 60 |
| A. Symonds not out | 18 |
| Extras (5lb, 3w, 3nb) | 11 |
| TOTAL (for three wkts - 31.3 overs) | 153 |
Fall: 1-1, 2-44, 3-110 Bowling: Shaun Pollock 5-1-16-1, Charl Langeveldt 6-0-34-1 (1nb, 1w), Jacques Kallis 5-1-20-0 (1nb, 1w), Andre Nel 7-1-31-1 (1w), Andrew Hall 6.3-0-43-0 (1nb), Justin Kemp 2-0-4-0 Result: Australia won by seven wickets.
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