Australia thought they had already won the World Cup as confusion surrounded the closing stages of the final when Sri Lanka left the field due to bad light with three overs remaining on Saturday.

The scoreboard on the ground flashed up with "Congratulations Australia" as the team celebrated on the ground but the Sri Lankan players were recalled by the umpires to finish the final three overs in extremely bad light.

Australia claim Cup hat-trick as final ends in farce

Australia lifted the World Cup trophy for a record third successive time after claiming a 53-run victory over Sri Lanka in farcial ending to a rain-shortened final on Saturday.

Adam Gilchrist smashed 149 -- the highest individual score in a World Cup final -- to propel Australia to 281-4 from their allotted 38 overs before the champions restricted Sri Lanka to 215 for eight in extremely bad light.

Sri Lanka, champions in 1996, were set a revised target of 269 off 36 overs under the Duckworth-Lewis system after rain halted play for 12 minutes during their run chase.

Australia win third World Cup amid confusion

Australia won a record third successive World Cup on Saturday amid scenes of unprecedented confusion as night fell on Kensington Oval.

The Australians, who scored 281 for four from 38 overs, thought they had clinched the rain-reduced match when Sri Lanka needing 63 runs from three to win accepted the umpires' offer to go off for bad light.

As the Australians celebrated exuberantly while the scoreboard flashed "Congratulations Australia", umpires Steve Bucknor and Aleem Dar told the teams they needed to complete the remaining overs or return on Sunday.

Instead, as match referee Jeff Crowe admitted at a news conference later, the match was already over because Sri Lanka had completed the minimum 20 of their revised allotment of 36.

Australia captain Ricky Ponting and his Sri Lanka counterpart Mahela Jayawardene agreed that slow bowlers would bowl the remaining overs because it was so dark and the match finally ended with Sri Lanka 215 for eight and a 53-run victory to Australia.

The fiasco rounded off a trouble-strewn competition which was rocked early on by the suspected murder of Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer and has been criticised for being over-long and over-priced for local Caribbean fans.

Australia, unbeaten in 29 World Cup matches since they lost to Pakistan in 1999, are the only team to win the tournament three times in a row. It was their fourth victory overall.

Australia coach John Buchanan, who quits his post after the tournament, said the gap between his team and the rest had been the difference "between night and day".

"Each individual strives for perfection all the time, from a coach's point of view that's a perfect team," he told a news conference.

Their win was set up by vice-captain Adam Gilchrist, who plundered a record 149 when play finally began 2-3/4 hours late.

Gilchrist broke Clive Lloyd's record for the fastest century in a World Cup final and went on to better Ponting's record individual score of 140 not out at the 2003 final. He equalled the World Cup record of eight sixes in an innings and he has also scored more than 50 in each of Australia's hat-trick of wins.

Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden (38) put on 172 for the first wicket, breaking the previous opening record of 129 in a final set by England's Mike Brearley and Geoff Boycott against West Indies in 1979.

Sri Lanka, the 1996 champions, made a spirited reply with Sanath Jayasuriya (63) and Kumar Sangakkara (54) adding 116 from 106 balls for the second wicket with some delightful strokes.

After their dismissals rain again swept across the Kensington Oval, stopping play for 12 minutes, and Sri Lanka's target was reduced to 269 from 36.

SUBLIME GILCHRIST

The Sri Lankans continued to go for their shots in the increasing gloom but wickets fell steadily and the game finally ended in total darkness with nobody on the ground able to figure out what was going on.

Gilchrist, who scored one in each of his last two innings, recaptured the timing that makes him one of the most destructive batsman in international cricket.

He lofted the second ball of Chaminda Vaas's second over for four then hit the left-armer over long-on for six and slashed a further boundary past slip.

Dilhara Fernando replaced the expensive Vaas in the attack but the tall paceman was unable to hold on to a sharp caught-and-bowled from Gilchrist, on 31, at ankle height.

The batsman celebrated with a four and a six from the next two deliveries.

Two sixes off off-spinner Tillakaratne Dilshan and another off Fernando brought up the 100 from 102 balls.

Gilchrist reached his century in 72 balls with eight fours and six sixes, 10 balls fewer than West Indian captain Lloyd's match-winning innings in the 1975 Cup final against Australia.

Hayden was caught in the covers by Jayawardene off the impressive Lasith Malinga and Gilchrist followed one short of his 150 caught off a skier after batting for 104 balls with 13 fours and eight sixes.

"He's a brilliant batsman and today he batted really well," said Jayawardene.

Sri Lanka opener Jayasuriya took fours through extra-cover, point and over slips from a Shaun Tait over.

Glenn McGrath, playing his last match for Australia, began economically before Sangakkara ruined his figures with a six into the crowd followed by two fours.

His dismissal, a simple catch to Ponting at mid-on off Brad Hogg's left-arm spin, was the beginning of the end for Sri Lanka. Jayasuriya was bowled for 63 from 67 balls by Michael Clarke and a difficult task for the remaining batsmen was made impossible by the rain and dark.

Shambolic World Cup final scenes sum up tournament

Shambolic scenes of disarray on the field and confusion among the spectators provided a sorry metaphor for the 2007 World Cup in the gloom of the Kensington Oval on Saturday evening.

Australia, the most awe-inspiring team in international sport, twice celebrated victory over Sri Lanka because of officials who either did not know or had forgotten their own rules.

After being recalled to the field unnecessarily for three more overs in a match which both teams realised had already finished according to the International Cricket Council's (ICC) rain regulations, Australia duly completed a unique third successive Cup triumph.

Their commanding victory was set up by an innings of 149 by vice-captain Adam Gilchrist of an audacity and enterprise surpassing West Indies captain Clive Lloyd in 1975 and Viv Richards four years later.

But even this inspired display, in which the ball sailed over the boundary eight times, was pushed into the background by the muddle at the end to Gilchrist's resigned bemusement at the post-match interviews.

ICC president Percy Sonn and chief executive Malcolm Speed were booed at the closing ceremony by the same crowd who cheered the two great Barbadian cricketers, Garfield Sobers and Everton Weekes.

WOOLMER DEATH

Tragedy irrevocably scarred the tournament in the opening round when Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer died at the age of 58 after he was found unconscious in his hotel room on March 18 following his team's unexpected loss to Ireland in Jamaica.

Shock turned to disbelief when deputy Jamaican police commissioner Mark Shields announced Woolmer had been strangled and that police had launched a murder inquiry.

A police statement said the death was "due to asphyxia as a result of manual strangulation".

Speculation has concentrated on illegal bookmakers in the Indian sub-continent where millions of dollars are bet on international cricket and where a former Pakistan and Indian captain have been banned for life for involvement in match-fixing. No arrests have yet been made.

The ICC were widely viewed in the Caribbean as the villains behind an over-long and over-priced tournament which took 46 days to discover that Australia were the world's best team by a distance.

Ticket prices starting at $US25 were beyond the reach of most local fans and the host of early restrictions on musical instruments alienated them further.

As a result they simply stayed away and the traditional West Indies' carnival atmosphere used by the ICC to help promote the event and attract visitors from overseas was absent.

"The ICC should be sued," Antiguan resident Alexis Jacobs told Reuters. "They charge first-world prices in a third-world country. They stopped the carnival atmosphere. Cricket in the Caribbean should be fun in the sun."

FEW HIGHLIGHTS

Speed defended the ICC, saying the prices had been set in conjunction with local organising committees and pointed out that the World Cup was a global event which required rules similar to other big tournaments.

The ICC, though, implicitly acknowledged the criticisms by lifting some of the more petty regulations and the atmosphere was certainly more vibrant from the second round.

Local organisers were friendly, helpful and usually efficient and fears of transport and accommodation chaos proved unfounded.

On the playing side, former winners Pakistan and India's first-round exits, although thoroughly deserved, devalued the tournament and kept thousands of potential spectators at home.

Too many games were too predictable with rare exceptions such as Ireland's tie with Zimbabwe, South Africa's narrow second-round win over Sri Lanka and England's one-wicket victory over West Indies in the final Super Eights match.

Individual highlights such as Herschelle Gibbs's six sixes in an over against the Netherlands and Lasith Malinga's four wickets in four balls for Sri Lanka were also sporadic.

Throughout the seven weeks in eight Caribbean regions the relentless excellence of the unbeaten Australians illuminated the tournament.

Opener Matthew Hayden scored the most runs, man-of-the-tournament Glenn McGrath in his final international series took the most wickets. Captain Ricky Ponting drove his men ruthlessly, setting ever higher standards of power and aggression.

Nobody challenged the Australians over the length of a game apart from themselves as they completed their season with the Champions Trophy, the Ashes and now a fourth World Cup.

"We've dominated this tournament like no team has dominated a tournament before," said Ponting. "We've never really been tested."

SCOREBOARD

 

Australia:

Adam Gilchrist c Silva b Fernando 149

Matthew Hayden c Jayawardene b Malinga 38

Ricky Ponting run out (Jayawardene) 37

Andrew Symonds not out 23

Shane Watson b Malinga 3

Michael Clarke not out 8

Extras: (leg byes 4, wides 16, no balls 3) 23

Total: (for four wickets in 38 overs) 281

Fall of wickets: 1-172 (Hayden, 22.5 overs), 2-224 (Gilchrist, 30.3), 3-261 (Ponting, 35.4), 4-266 (Watson, 36.2)

Bowling:

Chaminda Vaas 8 0 54 0 (2nb, 1w)

Lasith Malinga 8 1 49 2

Dilhara Fernando 8 0 74 1 (1nb, 4w)

Muttiah Muralitharan 7 0 44 0 (2w)

Tillakaratne Dilshan 2 0 23 0 (1w)

Sanath Jayasuriya 5 0 33 0

Sri Lanka:

Upul Tharanga c Gilchrist b Bracken 6

Sanath Jayasuriya b Clarke 63

Kumar Sangakkara c Ponting b Hogg 54

Mahela Jayawardene lbw b Watson 19

Chamara Silva b Clarke 21

Tillakaratne Dilshan run out (Clarke/McGrath) 14

Russel Arnold c Gilchrist b McGrath 1

Chaminda Vaas not out 11

Lasith Malinga st Gilchrist b Symonds 10

Dilhara Fernando not out 1

Extras: (lb 1, w 14) 15

Total: (for eight wickets in 36 overs) 215

Fall of wickets: 1-7 (Tharanga, 2.1 overs), 2-123 (Sangakkara, 19.5), 3-145 (Jayasuriya, 22.6), 4-156 (Jayawardene, 25.5), 5-188 (Dilshan, 29.6), 6-190 (Silva, 30.1), 7-194 (Arnold, 31.5), 8-211 (Malinga, 33.6)

Bowling:

Nathan Bracken 6 1 34 1 (1w)

Shaun Tait 6 0 42 0 (2w)

Glenn McGrath 7 0 31 1 (1w)

Shane Watson 7 0 49 1 (3w)

Brad Hogg 3 0 19 1

Michael Clarke 5 0 33 2 (2w)

Andrew Symonds 2 0 6 1

 

Result: Australia won by 53 runs (Duckworth & Lewis method)

Toss: Australia (decided to bat)

Umpires: Steve Bucknor (West Indies) and Aleem Dar (Pakistan)

TV umpire: Rudi Koertzen (South Africa)

Reserve umpire: Brent Bowden (New Zealand)

Match referee: Jeff Crowe (New Zealand)

Holders Australia powered into their fourth successive World Cup final with an emphatic seven-wicket victory over South Africa on Wednesday.

Australia dismissed South Africa for 149 -- their lowest World Cup total -- before rattling off the runs in the 32nd over.

The champions, chasing an unprecedented hat-trick of Cup titles, will face Sri Lanka in the final on Saturday in Bridgetown, Barbados.

World champions Australia dismissed a feeble South Africa challenge on Wednesday with a seven-wicket victory to take their place in Saturday's World Cup final against Sri Lanka in Barbados.

South Africa, who were top of the one-day rankings before the seven-week tournament began, collapsed to 149 all out from 43.5 overs in the second semi-final after Graeme Smith had won the toss and elected to bat.

It was their lowest total in a World Cup.

Pacemen Glenn McGrath, voted man of the match, and Shaun Tait did most of the damage, taking seven wickets between them.

Australia, who are gunning for an unprecedented third consecutive title, knocked off the runs with 18.3 overs remaining.

They are now unbeaten in 28 World Cup matches since losing to Pakistan in the 1999 tournament. This is the fourth World Cup running that they have reached the final, losing the first of those in 1996 to Sri Lanka.

South Africa, who have an unenviable record of losing when it matters in World Cups since they were re-admitted to the international sporting community in 1992, had preached a good game before Wednesday's match at the Beausejour Cricket Ground.

But the mantra "confidence, calmness and patience", which coach Mickey Arthur said the team had adapted to eliminate any lingering inferiority complexes against the top-ranked world champions, was seldom in evidence.

Faced with some excellent pace bowling from Tait, who delivered one of his more disciplined spells of the tournament, and 37-year-old McGrath, who produced one of his liveliest, South Africa succumbed to their lowest score in a World Cup.

Their previous worst was the 184 in the upset loss to Bangladesh in the second-stage Super Eights this month.

Smith (2) started the slide with an ugly heave towards cover to a delivery from Nathan Bracken which clipped his off-stump.

Jacques Kallis (5), the team's senior batsman and one of the most accomplished technicians in world cricket, drove McGrath through the covers for four then tried to cut a full-length delivery and was bowled.

MCGRATH RETURNS

AB de Villiers reached 15 before he edged a quick delivery from Tait to give wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist the first of four comfortable catches.

Ashwell Prince (0) was out in the same fashion to McGrath without scoring, driving at a wide delivery and Mark Boucher fell next ball, caught at slip by Matthew Hayden.

Herschelle Gibbs (39), fortunate to get a reprieve on four when he seemed to edge Tait to Gilchrist, and Justin Kemp (49 not out) added 60 for the sixth wicket.

Gibbs hit some fine drives but his dismissal, caught behind off Tait, ended his team's hopes of posting a competitive total.

Tait finished with four for 39 and McGrath returned to the top of the wicket-takers' table with three for 18 from eight overs. Overall, he has 25 wickets from the tournament.

Charl Langeveldt bowled Gilchrist for one with his first ball and had Ponting dropped on four by Prince diving to his right at square-leg in his next over. Ponting retaliated by hooking a boundary and off-driving another.

The Australian captain reeled off a series of sumptuous drives before he was bowled by Andre Nel for 22 from 25 balls with five fours.

Matthew Hayden, struggling with his timing on a pitch with increasingly slow, low bounce scored 41 from 60 balls, and Michael Clarke drove fluently each side of the wicket to reach an unbeaten 60 from 86 balls with eight boundaries.

Andrew Symonds (18 not out) struck the winning runs with a four through mid-wicket.

We were outclassed, admit chastened South Africa

South Africa defended their aggressive batting tactics and denied they had panicked after being crushed by Australia by seven wickets in their World Cup semi-final on Wednesday.

Australian fast bowler Glenn McGrath's triple strikes, including two wickets off successive balls, had half the batsmen back in the pavilion within the first 10 overs before South Africa were routed for their lowest World Cup total of 149.

The world champions eased to 153 for three in the 32nd over, setting up a final against 1996 champions Sri Lanka in Barbados on Saturday.

"I don't think we played reckless shots and threw wickets away," coach Mickey Arthur told a news conference. "We needed to disrupt Australia's momentum somehow and get on top and needed to get on top quick."

Captain Graeme Smith added: "We pride ourselves on these big days but we didn't play well.

"I definitely don't think we choked," he added. "We just weren't good enough. We were outplayed and you have got to give credit (to Australia).

"The top order just got out to good bowling, maybe one or two loose shots."

Smith himself was guilty of throwing his wicket away when the left-handed opener was bowled attempting a wild shot against paceman Nathan Bracken in the third over.

South Africa, desperate to reach a maiden World Cup final, never really recovered after they were reduced to 27 for five in the 10th over with fast bowler Shaun Tait complementing McGrath to finish with four wickets.

Jacques Kallis, usually the innings anchor, was also bowled trying a big shot against McGrath, who then had Ashwell Prince caught behind for a second-ball duck chasing a wide delivery.

"Our top order has played quite positive throughout the tournament," Smith said. "The ball did swing a bit up front which they used to their advantage.

"Once we became three down it became really difficult to wrest the initiative back."

South Africa have now been knocked out in the semi-final in three of the last five editions.

 

SCOREBOARD

 

South Africa:

G Smith b Bracken 2

A 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 (lb 4, w 13) 17

Total (all out; 43.5 overs; 199 mins) 149

Fall of wickets1-7 (Smith, 2.3 overs), 2-12 (Kallis, 5.3 overs), 3-26 (de Villiers, 8.5 overs), 4-27 (Prince, 9.4 overs), 5-27 (Boucher, 9.5 overs), 6-87 (Gibbs, 22.5 overs), 7-93 (Hall, 26.1 overs), 8-103 (Pollock, 29.4 overs), 9-130 (Nel, 40.1 overs), 10-149 (Langeveldt, 43.5 overs)

Bowling:

Nathan Bracken 7-2-15-1

Glenn McGrath 8-1-18-3 (1w)

Shaun Tait's 10-0-39-4 (5w)

Shane Watson 8.5-0-49-1

Brad Hogg 10-2-24-1 (3w)

 

Australia:

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 (lb 5, w 3, nb 3) 11

Total (3 wickets; 31.3 overs; 146 mins) 153

Fall of wickets: 1-1 (Gilchrist, 1.1 overs), 2-44 (Ponting, 8.6 overs), 3-110 (Hayden, 24.4 overs)

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 7 wickets

Man of the Match: Glenn McGrath (Australia)

Umpires: Aleem Dar (Pakistan) and SA Bucknor

TV umpire: BF Bowden (New Zealand)

Match referee: JJ Crowe (New Zealand)

Sri Lanka spinner Muttiah Muralitharan bamboozled New Zealand to send the 1996 champions to the World Cup final with a 81-run victory.

Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene chose to bat and struck an unbeaten 115 to lead his side to a daunting 289 for five at Sabina Park.

A stunning opening spell from unorthodox paceman Lasith Malinga then put New Zealand on the back foot before Muralitharan took four wickets, including three in six balls, as the Kiwis crumbled to 208 all out in 41.4 overs.

Australia play South Africa in St Lucia on Wednesday for the right to face Sri Lanka in Saturday's Barbados final. New Zealand have now lost in five World Cup semi-finals.

Sri Lanka surge into World Cup final

Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene struck an unbeaten century to lead his side into the World Cup final following a 81-run victory over New Zealand at Sabina Park on Tuesday.

The 1996 champions scored 289 for five and then condemned the Kiwis to their fifth semi-final defeat after bowling them out for 208 in the 42nd over.

Muralitharan spins Sri Lanka into final

Sri Lanka spinner Muttiah Muralitharan bamboozled New Zealand on Tuesday to send the 1996 champions to the World Cup final with a 81-run victory.

Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene chose to bat and struck an unbeaten 115 to lead his side to a daunting 289 for five at Sabina Park.

Master spinner Muralitharan then took four for 31 as he ran through the New Zealand middle-order, picking up three wickets in six balls, with Stephen Fleming's side collapsing to 208 all out. Fleming quit as Kiwis' one-day skipper shortly afterwards.

New Zealand's semi-final jinx continued -- this was their fifth defeat at this stage of the World Cup in nine tournaments -- while Sri Lanka moved into their second final.

They will meet the winners of Wednesday's second semi between holders Australia and South Africa in St Lucia.

Jayawardene had said before the game that his side's strength lay in specialists and his superbly paced innings, along with a knock of 73 from Upul Tharanga, justified his confidence in the upper order.

Not for the first time, Lasith Malinga delivered a superb spell of pace bowling before Muralitharan's deceptive spin proved too much for the Kiwis.

New Zealand had been well poised in their reply working their way to 100-2 after 20 overs but Muralitharan turned the game, producing a spell of five wickets for just 11 runs in tandem with Sanath Jayasuriya.

EARLY SETBACK

Sri Lanka had suffered an early setback when Jayasuriya, his country's most prolific run scorer, was bowled by James Franklin for one.

Left-armer Franklin claimed his second victim when wicketkeeper Kumar Sangakkara dollied a simple catch to New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming at mid-on with the score at 67.

Tharanga and a cautious Jayawardene then put on 44 and threatened a major partnership before spinner Daniel Vettori bowled a sweeping Tharanga around his legs.

Chamara Silva was unfortunate to be given out lbw off a mis-firing Shane Bond for 21 when television replays suggested he had got bat on ball before it hit the pads.

Tillakaratne Dilshan joined Jayawardene at a crucial stage of the game with Sri Lanka 152 for four in the 35th over and the pair stepped up the pace putting on an 81-run partnership in 64 deliveries.

Jacob Oram got rid off Dilshan with another harsh lbw decision before Jayawardene, who had been dropped by Bond on 70, then took complete charge and Sri Lanka amassed 102 runs from the final 10 overs.

The response began poorly for New Zealand when Fleming was trapped lbw by Malinga -- bowling with outstanding pace and accuracy -- and Chaminda Vaas trapped Ross Taylor leg before to leave the Kiwis on 32 for two.

But Scott Styris and Peter Fulton put on a 73-run partnership which brought New Zealand back into the running before Styris (37) was caught at mid-wicket off Dilshan and the slump began.

Jacob Oram (3) was the victim of a superb caught and bowled from Muralitharan and the spinner dismissed Brendon McCallum first ball, the wicketkeeper caught by Silva after unwisely trying to sweep.

Fulton went for 46, caught by Silva off Jayasuriya, before Muralitharan struck again trapping Vettori lbw after he failed to read the 'doosra' -- the off-spinner's surprise leg-break. New Zealand were then 116-7.

Craig McMillan, who struggled throughout the game with a stomach muscle problem, provided a brief rally with a hard-hitting 25 but the damage had been done and Muralitharan's fourth victim came when he bowled Bond.

With the game all but over last-man Jeetan Patel hit a spirited 34 at the end before he holed out off Dilshan.

The seven-week tournament, the first in the Caribbean, culminates on Saturday with the final in Bridgetown, Barbados.

Fleming quits as New Zealand one-day skipper

Stephen Fleming quit as New Zealand's one-day captain on Tuesday after his side's crushing World Cup semi-final defeat by Sri Lanka.

Fleming, 34, has led the side for 10 years and wants to stays as test captain and continue playing limited over internationals.

"I want to keep on playing but I'm standing down as captain of the one-day side," he told a news conference.

"Every win was celebrated. The tournament wins were very special. I think we do damn well with what we have got."

Fleming has served as skipper for three World Cups, reaching two semi-finals.

But New Zealand have never reached the World Cup final and in all have now lost five semi-finals in nine tournaments following Tuesday's 81-run loss.

"I'm not sure there was much more we could have done. As far as planning goes, we were extremely clear in our minds what we wanted to do," Fleming added.

The Christchurch-born batsman, who is also New Zealand's most successful and longest-serving test captain, led the one-day side for 218 of his 280 internationals, winning 98 and losing 106 matches.

"Stephen has been a great leader for New Zealand for quite some time now," Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene said.

"Even when I started he was captain. You could learn a lot from him. He is a very good captain and with the resources he had he has built up a very decent team.

"He's been one of the top captains for the last 10 years."

Fleming, who made his one-day international debut against India at Napier in March 1994, first captained the side in a defeat by Sri Lanka in Christchurch in March 1997.

Vice-captain and key spinner Daniel Vettori

Centurion Jayawardene gives credit to bowlers

Sri Lankan captain Mahela Jayawardene scored a match-winning century but handed the credit to his bowling attack after Tuesday's 81-run victory over New Zealand in their World Cup semi-final.

Off spinner Muttiah Muralitharan took four wickets to rip the heart out of the New Zealand middle-order after paceman Lasith Malinga returned from his injury layoff with an outstanding opening spell.

Muralitharan grabbed three wickets in six balls to leave the Kiwis looking clueless against his cunning spin.

"When you have a guy like that you know that your wicket-taking options are better," said the skipper, who hit an unbeaten 115 in his team's total of 289 for five.

"But he is a human as well, he can't do it all the time. He comes up with some really good efforts for us though.

"With him, Lasith and (Chaminda) Vaas I think I have better options now and obviously as a captain that is a good position to be in."

While Muralitharan's spell turned the game in Sri Lanka's direction, Malinga had set the tone with a wicket-maiden in his first over. He claimed the scalp of New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming.

Malinga had missed Sri Lanka's last three Super Eights matches due to an ankle injury but Jayawardene said he was not at all taken aback by his opening bowler's return.

"I wasn't surprised. The guy has been putting in a lot of effort and he was very upset that he wasn't playing, wasn't part of the team," he said.

"In the last two practice sessions we saw him looking really eager and he was doing things that he has done before.

BIG HEART

"He has a big heart and he has improved quite a lot as a cricketer in the last 12 months and I think his hard work has paid off."

The vital wicket of Scott Styris, who was looking threatening on 37, came not from one of Sri Lanka's frontline bowlers but back-up man Tillakaratne Dilshan.

Jayawardene said that surprise allowed him to turn the heat on New Zealand.

"Once the field went back after the Powerplays I thought I could sneak in maybe four or five overs but I never expected Dilshan to pick up a wicket that early," he said.

"That was a bonus, once we got that Murali came and asked me - 'shall we have a go at the batsmen for a few overs and try and pick up a few wickets?'

"That was a good time for us to put pressure on New Zealand and he picked up two wickets in that next over so everything worked pretty well. Nothing was planned, everything just happened so quickly."

Fleming, who announced after the match that he was standing down as one-day captain, acknowledged his side had been second-best.

"We certainly didn't play well enough I felt we were outclassed at key moments. But am proud of where we got to even if we wanted to go one further," he said.

will be the front-runner to replace Fleming.

 

SCOREBOARD

 

Sri Lanka:

W Tharanga b Vettori 73

S Jayasuriya b Franklin 1

K Sangakkara c Fleming b Franklin 18

M Jayawardene not out 115

L Silva lbw b Bond 21

T Dilshan lbw b Oram 30

R Arnold not out 14

Extras (lb 3, w 9, nb 5) 17

Total (5 wickets; 50 overs; 218 mins) 289

Fall of wickets: 1-13 (Jayasuriya, 2.3 overs), 2-67 (Sangakkara, 13.1 overs), 3-111 (Tharanga, 25.1 overs), 4-152 (Silva, 34.3 overs), 5-233 (Dilshan, 45.1 overs)

Bowling:

James Franklin 9-1-46-2 (2nb, 2w)

Shane Bond 10-1-59-1 (1nb, 3w)

Jacob Oram 10-0-60-1 (2nb, 1w)

Daniel Vettori 10-0-51-1 (1w)

Jeetan Patel 10-0-62-0

Scott Styris 1-0-8-0 (1w)

 

New Zealand:

P Fulton c Silva b Jayasuriya 46

S Fleming lbw b Malinga 1

R Taylor lbw b Vaas 9

S Styris c Jayawardene b Dilshan 37

J Oram c & b Muralitharan 3

B McCullum c Silva b Muralitharan 0

C McMillan b Jayasuriya 25

D Vettori lbw b Muralitharan 0

J Franklin not out 30

S Bond b Muralitharan 2

J Patel c Fernando b Dilshan 34

Extras (b 5, lb 2, w 8, nb 6) 21

Total (all out; 41.4 overs; 181 mins) 208

Fall of wickets1-2 (Fleming, 1.3 overs), 2-32 (Taylor, 10.3 overs), 3-105 (Styris, 21.5 overs), 4-114 (Oram, 23.5 overs), 5-114 (McCullum, 23.6 overs), 6-115 (Fulton, 24.3 overs), 7-116 (Vettori, 25.4 overs), 8-144 (McMillan, 30.2 overs), 9-149 (Bond, 31.4 overs), 10-208 (Patel, 41.4 overs)

Bowling:

Chaminda Vaas 8-1-25-1 (1w)

Lasith Malinga 7-2-21-1 (1nb)

Dilhara Fernando 5-0-45-0 (5nb, 1w)

Muttiah Muralitharan 8-0-31-4 (1w)

Sanath Jayasuriya 9-0-57-2 (3w)

Tillakaratne Dilshan 4.4-0-22-2 (1w)

 

Result: Sri Lanka won by 81 runs

Man of the Match: M Jayawardene (Sri Lanka)

Umpires: RE Koertzen (South Africa) and SJA Taufel (Australia)

TV umpire: DJ Harper (Australia)

Match referee: MJ Procter (South Africa)

 

Australia kept their 100 percent record intact at the World Cup with an emphatic 215-run win over New Zealand in a Super Eights match on Friday.

Matthew Hayden struck his third century of the World Cup to help take Australia to 348 for six before the holders bowled out New Zealand for 133.

Australia achieved the biggest World Cup victory margin between two test teams, eclipsing England's 202-run win over India in 1975 in a 60 overs match.

Watson justifies his captain's faith

Shane Watson justified the faith of captain Ricky Ponting on Friday with an innings which shattered New Zealand's hopes of containing the world champions in their final World Cup Super Eights match.

Returning to the side after yet another injury break, Watson gave as good an exhibition of clean hitting as anything seen in the tournament so far.

Sweeping the ball off his legs and hitting the ball powerfully on the drive he struck four fours and four sixes in his 65 not out from 32 balls.

Thanks to the powerful all-rounder's efforts, Australia added 66 in the final five overs to reach an imposing 348 for six.

With the ball, Watson bowled James Franklin for six in his first over and finished with one for 20 from his five overs as the Kiwis collapsed to 133 all out.

Watson missed the 2003 World Cup with a back injury and the last Ashes series with a hamstring complaint. He then strained a calf muscle against Bangladesh and did not play in Australia's last three games.

On Friday, Watson showed why he is so important to the balance of the team with bat, ball and in the field.

"Shane Watson is a very, very good and very, very talented cricketer, someone that works extremely hard at his game," Ponting, whose side have won all nine of their matches at the tournament, told a post-match news conference.

"He hasn't had a great run with injuries but if you look at his form in the one-day team over the last couple of years he has hardly put a foot wrong.

"He's opened the batting and his bowling in the one-day game over the last couple of years has been great.

"The way he struck the ball today was very pleasing for everyone."

Watson's assault followed 66 by Ponting and 103 from 100 balls from opener and man-of-the-match Matthew Hayden, his third century of the tournament.

"I think we've worked very hard throughout this summer in our one-day game and all elements of our game," Hayden said.

"So I guess it's no surprise we're here at the World Cup at the height of our game having played a lot of cricket.

"We're looking forward now to the next two games. All that we have achieved means nothing if we don't go all the way."

 

SCOREBOARD

 

Australia:

A Gilchrist c Gillespie b Franklin 1

M Hayden c & b Styris 103

R Ponting c Taylor b Patel 66

M Clarke b Franklin 49

M Hussey c Styris b Franklin 37

A Symonds c Mason b Patel 11

S Watson not out 65

B Hogg not out 0

Extras (lb 1, w 5, nb 10) 16

Total (6 wickets; 50 overs) 348

Fall of wickets: 1-7 (Gilchrist, 1.1 overs), 2-144 (Ponting, 22.6 overs), 3-216 (Hayden, 32.4 overs), 4-233 (Clarke, 35.3 overs), 5-257 (Symonds, 40.1 overs), 6-334 (Hussey, 49.3 overs)

Bowling:

Michael Mason 3-0-27-0 (1nb, 1w)

James Franklin 8-0-74-3 (5nb, 1w)

Jeetan Patel 10-0-48-2 (1nb)

Daniel Vettori 10-0-60-0 (2nb)

Scott Styris 10-0-50-1 (2w)

Mark Gillespie 6-0-67-0 (1nb)

Craig McMillan 3-0-21-0

 

New Zealand:

P Fulton b Hogg 62

S Fleming c Ponting b Tait 12

R Taylor c Hussey b McGrath 3

S Styris c Hayden b McGrath 27

C McMillan lbw b Tait 1

J Franklin b Watson 6

B McCullum c Hussey b Hogg 7

D Vettori c Symonds b Hogg 4

M Gillespie c McGrath b Hogg 2

M Mason c Gilchrist b Tait 0

J Patel not out 0

Extras (w 7, nb 2) 9

Total (all out; 25.5 overs; 127 mins) 133

Fall of wickets: 1-21 (Fleming, 3.3 overs), 2-29 (Taylor, 5.1 overs), 3-77 (Styris, 11.1 overs), 4-80 (McMillan, 12.3 overs), 5-89 (Franklin, 14.3 overs), 6-111 (McCullum, 19.3 overs), 7-117 (Vettori, 21.1 overs), 8-127 (Gillespie, 23.5 overs), 9-133 (Mason, 24.5 overs), 10-133 (Fulton, 25.5 overs)

Bowling:

Nathan Bracken 4-0-27-0 (1w)

Shaun Tait 6-0-32-3 (1nb, 4w)

Glenn McGrath 4-0-25-2 (1nb)

Brad Hogg 6.5-1-29-4 (1w)

Shane Watson 5-0-20-1 (1w)

 

Result: Australia won by 215 runs

Man of the Match: Matthew Hayden (Australia)

Umpires: Aleem Dar (Pakistan) and Asad Rauf (Pakistan)

TV umpire: BR Doctrove

Match referee: MJ Procter (South Africa)

World Cup hosts West Indies finally picked up their first win in the Super Eights stage with a 99-run victory over Bangladesh on Thursday in a game between two already eliminated sides.

Ramnaresh Sarwan struck an unbeaten 91 as West Indies recovered from the loss of two early wickets to make a total of 230 for five and then paceman Daren Powell claimed three wickets as Bangladesh were dismissed for 131 in the 44th over.

Brian Lara's side, who had lost to all four of their previous second-round games, were struggling at eight for two following the loss of openers Chris Gayle and Devon Smith.

But solid knocks from Marlon Samuels (31), Shivnarine Chanderpaul (50) and a lively partnership between Sarwan and Lara (33) helped them to a reasonable total.

A healthy crowd at a sun-drenched Kensington Oval had groaned when Smith was clean bowled by Mashrafe Mortaza and then Gayle, after surviving a strong appeal for caught behind, was trapped lbw by Syed Rasel.

Mortaza and Rasel produced movement and change of pace, as well as nagging accuracy and they restricted West Indies to 17 for two after 10 overs.

UNDER PRESSURE

Under pressure, Samuels and Chanderpaul then got their heads down and made progress, albeit slowly, putting on a 47 partnership in nearly 19 overs up before Samuels went with a frustrated shot as he was caught behind off the spin of Saqibul Hasan.

Chanderpaul was joined by fellow Guyanese batsman Sarwan, widely tipped to replace Lara as the one-day captain, and they continued the building work, putting on 81 in 16.1 overs.

But from the ball after he brought up his half-century Chanderpaul was bowled attempting to hit across the line to Aftab Ahmed.

In came Lara, in his penultimate one-day international before he retires from the format, and along with the well settled Sarwan the skipper helped step up the pace.

Lara hit a six over mid-wicket and then another over point as he made a lively 33 in 27 balls before he was caught at cover off Abdur Razzak.

The hosts racked up 84 runs off the last 10 overs and they gained a total which put the pressure on Bangladesh.

The reply got off to a bad start when opener Tamim Iqbal, who had been dropped by Lara, was run out following a mix-up with Javed Omar.

Local boy Corey Collymore, getting some bounce out of the wicket, then claimed two vital wickets with Aftab Ahmed caught behind by Denesh Ramdin off a ball that left him and then it was 23 for three when Saqibul Hasan failed to deal with a steeply rising delivery and Ramdin snaffled up a simple catch.

Powell's second spell finished off any realistic chance of a revival from Bangladesh with Omar caught by Gayle and then had captain Habibul Bashar caught by Dwayne Bravo at third slip to leave the score at 52 for six.

Mortaza provided some resistance with a gutsy 37 before he was yorked by Bravo who then got rid of Razzak.

Gayle picked up the wicket of Rasel to close the innings and give the home support something to smile about at last.

They finish their campaign against England in Bridgetown on Saturday. West Indies will begin a tour of England next month.

West Indies vice-captain Ramnaresh Sarwan top-scored with 91 not out before their fast bowlers took command to defeat Bangladesh by 99 runs in a World Cup Super Eights match on Thursday.

The home team's first victory in the second round came too late after four defeats in a row had dashed their semi-final hopes and rendered the game inconsequential.

Sarwan steered West Indies to 230 for five before new-ball bowlers Daren Powell and Corey Collymore shared five of the first six wickets on a bouncy Kensington Oval pitch to reduce Bangladesh to 52 for six.

Bangladesh were eventually 131 all out in the 44th over to finish down the table with only one win in their first World Cup second-round appearance.

Windies crush Bangladesh to end losing run

West Indies ended their four-match losing streak at the World Cup with a comfortable 99-run win over Bangladesh in a Super Eights match on Thursday.

The hosts scored a modest 230 runs from their 50 overs but recorded their first victory in the second round of the tournament after bowling out Bangladesh for 131.

Neither team had a chance of progressing to the semi-finals.

Bangladesh skipper to mull over one-day future

Bangladesh skipper Habibul Bashar plans to weigh up his options in one-day cricket after his team finished their World Cup campaign with a 99-run defeat by hosts West Indies on Thursday.

"I think I'm going to play a few more years in test matches and I am planning to think about my one-day career when I get home," Bashar told a news conference.

Bangladesh had unexpectedly reached the second round after a stunning win over 1983 champions India in the group phase. But the youngest test nation soon got a reality check after winning just one of their six Super Eight matches -- albeit against South Africa.

Bashar himself failed with the bat, totalling just 105 runs in eight innings at an average of 13.12.

Asked whether the responsibility of leading the side had affected his performance, he said: "I shouldn't give any excuses. I did not perform well and definitely did not have a good World Cup.

"When you are leading a team, you're under extra pressure. You need to cope with it."

Despite his own failings, the 34-year-old urged his young batsmen to learn from their Caribbean experience.

Bangladesh top-order batsmen caved in against the pace of Daren Powell and Corey Collymore on a bouncy Kensington Oval pitch chasing 231 for victory in their last Super Eights game.

"We need to adapt to this bounce a bit. We need to learn quickly from our mistakes," Bashar said.

"We had some good days and some ordinary days as everyone could see. We had only one good game and six bad games.

"It didn't show what we are capable of."

They managed to finish seventh in the Super Eights in their maiden second round appearance, ahead of debutants Ireland due to better net run rate after losing to the associate team.

Bashar praised coach Dav Whatmore for the team's progress. The Australian is expected to leave the team after playing a key role in their progress since they failed to win a match in the 2003 World Cup.

"He is very much respected by the players," Bashar said.

"No one really disagrees with him, which is very important for a coach.

"He gave us lot of confidence. He was really wonderful for us in the last four years."

 

SCOREBOARD

 

West Indies:

C Gayle lbw b Syed Rasel 1

D Smith b Mashrafe Mortaza 5

S Chanderpaul b Aftab Ahmed 50

M Samuels c Mushfiqur Rahim b Saqibul Hasan 31

R Sarwan not out 91

B Lara c Javed Omar b Abdur Razzak 33

D Bravo not out 9

Extras (lb 3, w 7) 10

Total (5 wickets; 50 overs; 204 mins) 230

Fall of wickets: 1-8 (Smith, 2.6 overs), 2-8 (Gayle, 3.5 overs), 3-55 (Samuels, 21.3 overs), 4-136 (Chanderpaul, 37.4 overs), 5-196 (Lara, 46.1 overs)

Bowling:

Mashrafe Mortaza 10-2-39-1 (2w)

Syed Rasel 10-2-48-1 (1w)

Abdur Razzak 10-0-44-1

Mohammad Rafique 10-0-46-0

Saqibul Hasan 8-0-38-1

Aftab Ahmed 2-0-12-1

 

Bangladesh:

Javed Omar c Gayle b Powell 16

Tamim Iqbal run out (Bravo) 7

Aftab Ahmed c Ramdin b Collymore 6

Saqibul Hasan c Ramdin b Collymore 0

Mohammad Ashraful c Samuels b Powell 2

Habibul Bashar c Bravo b Powell 12

Mushfiqur Rahim not out 38

Mashrafe Mortaza b Bravo 37

Mohammad Rafique lbw b Gayle 0

Abdur Razzak c Lara b Bravo 1

Syed Rasel b Gayle 2

Extras (lb 1, w 7, nb 2) 10

Total (all out; 43.5 overs; 190 mins) 131

Fall of wickets: 1-13 (Tamim Iqbal, 6.2 overs), 2-21 (Aftab Ahmed, 8.5 overs), 3-23 (Saqibul Hasan, 10.5 overs), 4-34 (Mohammad Ashraful, 14.4 overs), 5-35 (Javed Omar, 16.1 overs), 6-52 (Habibul Bashar, 20.4 overs), 7-110 (Mashrafe Mortaza, 34.6 overs), 8-111 (Mohammad Rafique, 35.6 overs), 9-114 (Abdur Razzak, 38.4 overs), 10-131 (Syed Rasel, 43.5 overs)

Bowling:

Corey Collymore 7-1-11-2 (1w)

Daren Powell 10-0-38-3 (4w)

Jerome Taylor 8-0-25-0 (1w)

Dwayne Bravo 10-3-28-2 (2nb, 1w)

Chris Gayle 8.5-0-28-2

 

Result: West Indies won by 99 runs

Man of the Match: Ramnaresh Sarwan (West Indies)

Umpires BF Bowden (New Zealand) and RE Koertzen (South Africa)

TV umpire SJA Taufel (Australia)

Match referee JJ Crowe (New Zealand)

 

 Sri Lanka romped to an eight-wicket victory over Ireland in their final World Cup Super Eights match on Wednesday after dismissing their opponents for the lowest score of the tournament.

Ireland made only 77 from their 27.4 overs, one fewer than Bermuda managed against the same opponents in the group stages, after reaching 28 without loss.

Paceman Farveez Maharoof, who took three wickets in four balls in his opening over, and off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan, who captured two from his first four deliveries, finished with four for 25 and four for 19 respectively.

Maharoof started the rout for the 1996 champions, who have already qualified for the semi-finals, when he came on in the eighth over.

After conceding two fours from his first two balls to opener Jeremy Bray he switched to bowling around the wicket and the left-hander was caught for 20 at short-cover by Russel Arnold.

Andre Botha defended the next ball but then edged a straight-forward catch to wicketkeeper Kumar Sangakkara.

Eoin Morgan followed next ball to an acrobatic effort from Sangakkara, who changed direction to fling himself to his left and take the ball one-handed.

Maharoof missed an opportunity to take a fourth wicket with the first ball of his fifth over when he dropped a caught-and-bowled chance off Niall O'Brien on two.

In his next over opener William Porterfield, who had scored 17 from 51 deliveries, lofted a simple catch to Sanath Jayasuriya at mid-on.

BRILLIANT FIELDING

Muralitharan, coming on to bowl in the 19th over, dismissed O'Brien caught behind for four then bowled Kenny Carroll, playing his first game of the tournament, for a second-ball duck.

Maharoof ran out Ireland captain Trent Johnston (0) with a brilliant piece of fielding in the next over. Johnston moved out of his crease as he pushed the ball back to the bowler who threw down the stumps at the batsman's end with a one-handed pickup and throw.

Kevin O'Brien (2) fell to a second catch by Jayasuriya from the first ball of Muralitharan's next over before Dave Langford-Smith brought up the 50 with a bold clump over mid-on for four.

Langford-Smith was given a life in Muralitharan's next over when Maharoof dropped a catch running in from square-leg. The batsmen crossed for one and Kyle McCallan was lbw next ball for a duck padding up.

A hooked six by Langford-Smith off Maharoof followed and Boyd Rankin drove Muralitharan for a four in a breezy last-wicket partnership before Chaminda Vaas returned to dismiss Langford-Smith lbw for 18 with a low full-toss.

Sri Lanka lost Upul Tharanga for a duck and Sangakkara caught for 10 but Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene was in no mood to delay the finish.

He scored an unbeaten 39 from 27 balls with six fours and a six to seal victory after 10 overs and little more than three hours' play.

One time Northern Irish foes unite in praise of team

Hardline Protestant cleric Ian Paisley and one-time arch-enemy Martin McGuinness, a former IRA commander, united on Wednesday to congratulate the Irish cricket team on their performance in the World Cup.

Pro-British Paisley and Irish nationalist McGuinness, who are due to begin sharing power in a regional assembly in Northern Ireland next month, hailed "a marvellous achievement" and invited the team to a reception in Belfast.

"Qualifying for the tournament itself was tremendous, but making the Super Eight stage was nothing short of remarkable," they said in one of their first joint statements since agreeing in March to end decades of enmity between their parties.

World Cup debutants Ireland stunned cricket aficionados with a shock victory over former world champions Pakistan, triggering a new-found national interest in a sport many in the Irish Republic had regarded as a colonial hangover following the country's independence from Britain in 1921.

PARTICULAR PRAISE

McGuinness paid particular praise to local players Jeremy Bray, Peter Gillespie, Kyle McCallan and Andrew White, while Paisley singled out the manager, "Ulsterman" Roy Torrens.

At the weekend, Ireland had their first second-stage Super Eights win, dashing Bangladesh's semi-final hopes with a 74-run victory.

They lost their final match by eight wickets to Sri Lanka on Wednesday in Grenada.

Paisley, whose Democratic Unionist Party is the main representative of Northern Ireland's Protestant majority, will be First Minister when the Belfast-based executive takes over the running of the British province's affairs on May 8.

McGuinness, a veteran of the IRA's political ally Sinn Fein -- and a self-confessed former commander of the guerrilla group -- will act as Deputy First Minister.

The pastime remained popular in partitioned British-ruled Northern Ireland, where the playing of Gaelic games such as hurling were until recently politically contentious.

More than 3,600 people were killed in 30 years of sectarian bloodshed in Northern Ireland between majority Protestants committed to ties with Britain and a Catholic minority in favour of a united Ireland.

 

SCOREBOARD

 

Ireland:

J Bray c Arnold b Maharoof 20

W Porterfield c Jayasuriya b Maharoof 17

A Botha c Sangakkara b Maharoof 0

E Morgan c Sangakkara b Maharoof 0

N O'Brien c Sangakkara b Muralitharan 4

K O'Brien c Jayasuriya b Muralitharan 2

K Carroll b Muralitharan 0

T Johnston run out (Maharoof) 0

K McCallan lbw b Muralitharan 0

D Langford-Smith lbw b Vaas 18

B Rankin not out 7

Extras (lb 5, w 2, nb 2) 9

Total (all out; 27.4 overs; 125 mins) 77

Fall of wickets: 1-28 (Bray, 7.3 overs), 2-28 (Botha, 7.5 overs), 3-28 (Morgan, 7.6 overs), 4-46 (Porterfield, 17.6 overs), 5-48 (NJ O'Brien, 18.2 overs), 6-48 (Carroll, 18.4 overs), 7-49 (Johnston, 19.4 overs), 8-49 (KJ O'Brien, 20.1 overs), 9-54 (McCallan, 22.4 overs), 10-77 (Langford-Smith, 27.4 overs)

Bowling:

Chaminda Vaas 5.4-1-18-1 (1nb)

Nuwan Kulasekara 7-3-10-0

Farveez Maharoof 10-3-25-4 (1nb)

Muttiah Muralitharan 5-0-19-4

 

Sri Lanka:

W Tharanga c Porterfield b Rankin 0

S Jayasuriya not out 24

K Sangakkara c Carroll b Langford-Smith 10

M Jayawardene not out 39

Extras (w 5, nb 3) 8

Total (2 wickets; 10 overs; 51 mins) 81

Fall of wickets: 1-1 (Tharanga, 0.6 overs), 2-25 (Sangakkara, 3.2 overs)

Bowling:

Boyd Rankin 4-0-36-1 (3nb, 2w)

D Langford-Smith 3-0-29-1 (3w)

Andre Botha 1-0-4-0

Kevin O'Brien 1-0-4-0

Kenneth Carroll 1-0-8-0

 

Result: Sri Lanka won by 8 wickets

Man of the Match: Farveez Maharoof (Sri Lanka)

Umpires: MR Benson (England) and BR Doctrove

TV umpire: DJ Harper (Australia)

Match referee: BC Broad (England)

Andrew Hall took five wickets to help South Africa surge into the World Cup semi-finals and eliminate England with a crushing nine-wicket win in the Super Eights on Tuesday.

Medium pacer Hall bagged a career-best five for 18 to dismiss a woeful England for 154 with two overs remaining after Michael Vaughan had won the toss and elected to bat despite a lively Kensington Oval pitch.

South Africa then knocked off the runs in just 19.2 overs to complete the rout with captain Graeme Smith hitting an unbeaten 89.

The Proteas join defending champions Australia, New Zealand and Sri Lanka in the last four with the semi-final match-ups determined by the final positions in the round-robin Super Eights table.

England deserved to be booed off, says Vaughan

Captain Michael Vaughan said England had deserved to be booed off after a crushing nine-wicket defeat by South Africa knocked them out of the World Cup on Tuesday.

Vaughan, 32, said he would not be retiring from one-day internationals but that others would decide if he kept the captaincy. He also said he was unaware if coach Duncan Fletcher was considering quitting.

"It is a very sad day for English cricket. It's a horrible feeling to have walked off the park in Barbados and get booed by a lot of England supporters and rightfully so from the performance we've put in," Vaughan told a news conference after the defeat in the Super Eights match.

"I fully understand why they have given us that sort of reception. We have to hold our hands up and accept all the criticism that comes our way."

South Africa medium pacer Andrew Hall took five wickets to help dismiss England for 154 before Graeme Smith hit an unbeaten 89 to lead his side to victory in just 19.2 overs.

ASHES MAULING

England have struggled all tournament with Bangladesh the only test team they beat. The side arrived in the Caribbean on the back of a 5-0 mauling by Australia in the Ashes test series.

"There needs to be a lot of honesty. We as an England team have had a very disappointing six months. I firmly believed we'd do a lot better than we have," added Vaughan, who has been in poor batting form.

"I won't be retiring from one-day cricket. But I'm not stupid to think it's not going to be an area of concern.

"The most important thing is that we have to get English cricket back on track. We need a strategy to move forward. Since 1992 England haven't produced any good one-day cricket. We need to know why."

After contesting the 1992 final, in which they were beaten by Pakistan, England have failed to reach the semis in any of the four subsequent World Cups.

Coach Fletcher, who with Vaughan led England to a 2-1 Ashes win in 2005 before results fell away, will come under huge media pressure to resign.

His future was due to be discussed at the end of the tournament and former England all-rounder Ian Botham was quick to say he should leave.

"We've got good cricketers but they need a new direction. Duncan Fletcher has done some great things for England over the years but everyone has a shelf life and I'm sorry his has expired," Botham told Sky Sports.

Vaughan though backed his close friend.

"I think he is still an outstanding cricket coach," he said. "Only he knows and he will tell you exactly how he is feeling at this moment. I know he will be very, very disappointed and hurt inside."

England World Cup campaign shambolic and feeble - papers

England's World Cup performance was branded shambolic and feeble by the country's press after a crushing nine-wicket defeat by South Africa knocked them out of the tournament on Tuesday.

Coach Duncan Fletcher's days in the job are numbered, papers said, after his side struggled throughout their stay in the Caribbean, with Bangladesh the only test team they beat.

"If pride does not make him fall on his sword after a 5-0 Ashes whitewash and a miserable World Cup, he should be sacked by the ECB," wrote The Sun, on a page taken up largely by the headlines "Sunken Duncan" and "World Cup shambles".

The Times wrote that Michael Vaughan's career as one-day captain was likely to go the same way as Fletcher's after England's "feeble performance".

"The truth was simply confirmed: that their World Cup hopes have never been realistic," the newspaper wrote in its Wednesday edition. "England looked dazed, defenceless and defeated."

Vaughan said after Tuesday's match that England had deserved to be booed off and that the team had to hold up their hands and accept all the criticism that came their way.

South Africa in semis after outclassing England

South Africa outclassed England to take their place in the World Cup semi-finals after a nine-wicket victory in their Super Eights game on Tuesday at the Kensington Oval.

The defeat ended England's hopes of making the last four and the South Africans now join Australia, New Zealand and Sri Lanka in the semi-finals.

Andrew Hall took a career-best five for 18 as England slumped to 154 all out and then skipper Graeme Smith made an unbeaten 89 as South Africa ruthlessly knocked off the target with more than 30 overs to spare.

England, who were booed off the field by their large travelling support, now have a meaningless final match of the tournament against hosts West Indies on Saturday in Barbados with both teams now eliminated from the competition.

Hall's intelligent seam bowling was the decisive element in the game, prompting a middle-order batting collapse, with five English wickets going for just 10 runs.

But after England's bowling was so ruthlessly dealt with it was easy to speculate whether a higher score would have made much difference.

England captain Michael Vaughan won the toss and opted to bat first on a wicket that has proven lively in the morning sessions, hoping to take advantage of the quicker pace on the track.

SLOW START

But Vaughan, opening with Ian Bell, made a slow start and England only managed five runs off the first five overs.

Seamers Shaun Pollock and Charl Langeveldt kept England pegged back and Langeveldt then claimed the wicket of a frustrated Bell who skied an attempted pull shot to Ashwell Prince.

The impressive Andre Nel then trapped Vaughan leg before for 17 to leave England at 37 for two in the 13th over.

The pressure was on England's South African-born batsman Kevin Pietersen who faced some hostility -- with bowling and staring -- from Nel.

It was not long before the seamer had his victim with Pietersen (3) spooning a catch to mid-off as he got himself tangled up on a drive.

Another South African-born batsman, Andrew Strauss, got his head down with Paul Collingwood and the pair produced England's best partnership by putting on 58 before Strauss went for 46.

Collingwood followed shortly afterwards for 30, lbw to Hall who then dealt with England's last real threat, Andrew Flintoff (5), removing the all-rounder's middle stump with a ball that cut back off the seam and through a huge gap between bat and pad.

Hall then took Paul Nixon and Sajid Mahmood with successive deliveries and only an unbeaten cameo innings of 27 from Ravi Bopara gave England's attack something to bowl at.

Hall picked up his fifth wicket with his final ball, dismissing James Anderson leg before as England's innings ended with two overs remaining.

Any hopes England had of putting their opponents under early pressure were swept aside in the opening overs as South Africa's opening pair of AB de Villiers and Smith raced to 44 in the opening five overs -- Sajid Mahmood going for 28 off his opening two overs.

De Villiers finally went, caught behind off Flintoff for 42, with South Africa at 85 for one in the 10th over.

Jacques Kallis then came in to see things through alongside the impressive Smith who needed just 58 balls for his 89 not out to crown what was his side's best display of the tournament so far. Smith's knock included 13 boundaries.

 

SCOREBOARD

Match No. 44th, South Africa vs England, Super Eight, Kensington Oval, Bridgetown, Barbados on April 17

England:

I Bell c Prince b Langeveldt 7

M Vaughan lbw b Nel 17

A Strauss c Smith b Kallis 46

K Pietersen c Smith b Nel 3

P Collingwood lbw b Hall 30

A Flintoff b Hall 5

R Bopara not out 27

P Nixon c Boucher b Hall 1

S Mahmood b Hall 0

M Panesar c Boucher b Nel 2

J Anderson lbw b Hall 0

Extras (b 4, lb 4, w 5, nb 3) 16

Total (all out; 48 overs) 154

Fall of wickets: 1-9 (Bell, 7.3 overs), 2-37 (Vaughan, 12.2 overs), 3-53 (Pietersen, 16.2 overs), 4-111 (Strauss, 32.4 overs), 5-115 (Collingwood, 33.5 overs), 6-119 (Flintoff, 35.1 overs), 7-121 (Nixon, 35.6 overs), 8-121 (Mahmood, 37.1 overs), 9-144 (Panesar, 44.3 overs), 10-154 (Anderson, 47.6 overs)

Bowling:

Shaun Pollock 10-2-17-0 (1nb)

Charl Langeveldt 7-1-38-1

Andre Nel 10-3-35-3 (2nb, 4w)

Andrew Hall 10-2-18-5

Jacques Kallis 8-0-22-1

Justin Kemp 3-0-16-0 (1w)

 

South Africa:

AB de Villiers c Nixon b Flintoff 42

G Smith not out 89

J Kallis not out 17

Extras (b 4, w 3, nb 2) 9

Fall of wickets1-85 (de Villiers, 9.5 overs)

Bowling:

James Anderson 5-0-32-0 (2w)

Sajid Mahmood 4.2-0-49-0 (1nb)

Andrew Flintoff 6-0-36-1 (1nb, 1w)

Monty Panesar 2-0-24-0

Paul Collingwood 2-0-12-0

 

Result: South Africa won by 9 wickets

Man of the Match: Andrew Hall (South Africa)

Umpires: SA Bucknor and SJA Taufel (Australia)

TV umpire: BF Bowden (New Zealand)

Match referee: RS Madugalle (Sri Lanka)

 

In an affair that lacked spark and imagination, Sri Lanka got half-centuries from Mahela Jayawardene and Chamara Silva before being dismissed for 226 off 49.4 overs, with the exemplary left-arm seamer Nathan Bracken grabbing four wickets.

Australia, in reply, strolled to their target of 232 for three in 42.4 overs, thanks to unbeaten half-centuries from captain Ricky Ponting and Andrew Symonds.

Though having already qualified for the semi-finals, Australia went with a full strength side while Sri Lanka, also already assured of a place in the final four, signalled their intentions by leaving out key bowlers, champion off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan and left-arm fast bowler Chaminda Vaas.

Opting to bat after winning the toss, Sri Lanka had a disastrous start when they lost Sanath Jayasuriya (12), Kumar Sangakkara (0) and Upul Tharanga (12) within the first seven overs of the morning.

Jayawardene then stroked an attractive 72 from 88 balls with five fours and a six and shared a critical 140-run stand for the fourth wicket with Silva, whose 64 came from 106 balls and included six fours, to set the stage for Sri Lanka's eventual total.

Australia got off to a flyer thanks to Matthew Hayden's 30-ball 41 and Adam Gilchrist's 30 from 49 balls, as the two added 76 in 71 balls for the first wicket before being parted.

When Australia slipped to 126 for three in the 24th over, Ponting hammered 66 from 80 balls four fours and one six and Symonds stroked 63 from 71 balls with five fours and two sixes in an unbroken partnership of 106 to ensure the world champions' unbeaten streak remained in tact.

It was Bracken, voted the eventual Man-of-the-Match for his four for 19, who was the architect of Australia's victory. Sharing the new ball with the wayward Shaun Tait, he accounted for openers Jayasuriya and Tharanga in a period that saw three wickets fall for one run in the space of 10 balls.

Operating from the northern end, he trapped the left-handed Jayasuriya leg before wicket in the day's fifth over with the score on 26 and picked up his second wicket, the third to fall, when Tharanga edged to Hayden at second slip in the seventh over with the total on 27. In between, Glenn McGrath, who had replaced Tait after the rookie sent down two overs for 18 runs, also trapped Sangakkara leg before wicket.

Jayawardene and Silva then set about repairing the innings with a fine partnership, before blossoming to entertain the vocal crowd numbered at 10 661 spectators, the highest attendance to date.

Silva was quick to pounce on anything remotely loose, and took advantage of Tait's wayward line. Returning for a second spell this time from the northern end, the right-hander sliced the second delivery through the slip cordon for four and then hammered the fourth through point for another boundary.

Tait, who finished with two for 68, was promptly removed from the attack after the two-over spell cost another 15 and the two batsmen, growing in confidence, begun to score freely against the Australian attack.

McGrath, who finished with two for 48, came in for some stick from Jayawardene who smashed the final ball of the veteran's sixth over over the top for four to push Sri Lanka up to 109 for three in the 28th over.

The right-handed Jayawardene posted his 50 with a pull for six over square leg in Tait's second over of a third spell, which was also costly. The six raised the century-stand between the two in the 31st over.

Left-arm spinner Brad Hogg (2-48) then struck a crucial double blow in successive overs. First he prised out Silva in his ninth over, caught at short fine leg by Michael Clarke sweeping at 167 and then claimed Jayawardene in his final over, stumped by Gilchrist.

It signalled the end of the Sri Lankan resistance though Farveez Maharoof hit four fours in 25 from 22 balls and Malinga Bandara crashed two sixes in a 19-ball 17.

Australia motored through the early overs scoring freely, posting 59 in the first 10 overs. Sri Lanka needed part-time off-spinner Russel Arnold to break the stand as he removed both Gilchrist and Hayden to soft dismissals to leave Australia on 79 for two in the 14th over.

Clarke struck 23 in a partnership of 47 with Ponting before driving leg-spinner to Tillekeratne Dilshan at cover who took the catch just inches from the turf in the 24th over.

It marked the end of Sri Lanka's success. Ponting, elegant in his stroke-play and Symonds, brutal in gathering his runs, then safely navigated Australia to their target.

SCOREBOARD

Sri Lanka:

Upul Tharanga c Hayden b Bracken 6

Sanath Jayasuriya lbw Bracken 12

Kumar Sangakkara lbw McGrath 0

Mahela Jayawardene st Gilchrist b Hogg 72

Chamara Silva c Clarke b Hogg 64

Tillekaratne Dilshan c Hodge b Tait 7

Russel Arnold b Tait 3

Farveez Maharoof c Symonds b Bracken 25

Nuwan Kulasekara c Hayden b Bracken 1

Malinga Bandara c Hogg b McGrath 17

Dilhara Fernando not out 0

Extras (lb 5, w 11, nb 3) 19

Total (all out in 49.4 overs) 226

Fall of wickets: 1-26 (Jayasuriya, 4.3 overs), 2-27 (Sangakkara, 5.3), 3-27 (Tharanga, 6.4), 4-167 (Silva, 37.2), 5-174 (Jayawardene, 39.4), 6-178 (Dilshan, 40.6), 7-183 (Arnold, 42.4), 8-184 (Kulasekara, 43.3), 9-218 (Bandara, 48.6), 10-226 (Maharoof, 49.4)

Bowling:

Nathan Bracken 9.4-3-19-4 (1w)

Shaun Tait 10-0-68-2 (1nb, 6w)

Glenn McGrath 9-1-48-2 (1nb)

Brad Hogg 10-0-35-2

Andrew Symonds 3-0-15-0 (1nb)

Michael Clarke 8-0-36-0

Australia:

Adam Gilchrist lbw Arnold 30

Matthew Hayden c Dilshan b Arnold 41

Ricky Ponting not out 66

Michael Clarke c Dilshan b Bandara 23

Andrew Symonds not out 63

Extras: (w 4, nb 5) 9

Total: (for three wickets in 42.4 overs) 232

Fall of wickets: 1-76 (Hayden, 11.5 overs), 2-79 (Gilchrist, 13.3), 3-126 (Clarke, 23.1)

Bowling:

Dilhara Fernando 6-1-36-0 (3nb, 3w)

Farveez Maharoof 7-0-52-0 (1nb)

Nuwan Kulasekara 4-0-20-0 (1nb)

Russel Arnold 4-0-20-2 (1w)

Malinga Bandara 9.4-0-53-1

Sanath Jayasuriya 6-0-32-0

Tillakaratne Dilshan 6-0-19-0

Result: Australia won by 7 wickets

Man of the Match: Nathan Bracken (Australia)

Umpires: Aleem Dar (Pakistan) and Billy Doctrove (West Indies)

TV umpire: Mark Benson (England)

Match referee: Mike Procter (South Africa)

Ireland ended Bangladesh's slim hopes of reaching the World Cup semi-finals with a 74-run victory in a Super Eights match on Sunday.

Sloppy fielding from Bangladesh allowed Ireland to reach 243 for seven and the debutants then recorded their first second-round win at the tournament after bowling out the Asian test side for 169.

Ireland wreck Bangladesh's semi-final dreams

Ireland ended Bangladesh's slim semi-final hopes after an excellent all-round display handed the debutants a 74-run victory in a Super Eights match on Sunday.

Opening batsman William Porterfield top-scored with a chancy 85 to guide Ireland to their highest Cup total of 243 for seven after they chose to bat.

Bangladesh top order batsmen then fell to reckless shots to be all out for 169 in 41.2 overs.

The result left both teams on two points and fighting to avoid finishing at the bottom of the table.

We deserved to lose, says frustrated Bashar

Captain Habibul Bashar admitted Ireland had been a more consistent team in the World Cup than Bangladesh after losing to them by 74 runs in their penultimate Super Eights match on Sunday.

The skipper was critical of his team in their fielding, bowling and batting but still felt that his side should have chased down 244 to win at the Kensington Oval.

Instead they were bowled out for 169 by Ireland in the 42nd over.

"The way we played today we deserved to lose," Bashar told reporters. "It was one of those days when nothing went right for us. We fielded pretty ordinary, we bowled poorly and then chasing, we lost too many early wickets.

"It's very much frustrating for me," he added. "We've done a very good job in this World Cup so far by beating two big teams (India and South Africa).

"One day we look brilliant and the next we are ordinary. We need to be more consistent."

His comment referred to the way Bangladesh beat India in the group stage to oust the 1983 winners and then South Africa eight days ago when the Proteas were still ranked one in the world.

Bangladesh have been a fully-fledged test outfit since 2000 and have beaten Pakistan and defending champions Australia in previous years, but the defeat to World Cup debutants Ireland was one of their most embarrassing reverses.

"It looks like we are going to be number eight (in the Super Eights) after this match and we had hoped we would be sixth or seventh," Bashar said. "I must give credit to Ireland though. They played very well and put us under pressure."

Bangladesh are bottom of the Super Eights table on two points. They trail Ireland on net run rate.

Bangladesh's last match of the tournament is against hosts West Indies on Thursday in Barbados.

The seven-week tournament, the first in the Caribbean, started with 16 nations and was whittled down to eight for the second-stage Super Eights.

Ireland enter main ODI ranking list after Bangladesh win

 Ireland's upset World Cup win over Bangladesh earned them entry into the main International Cricket Council (ICC) one-day ranking list.

Debutants Ireland, an associate team, beat Bangladesh by 74 runs in a Super Eights match between the tournament's two giant-killers on Sunday in Bridgetown

It was the second win over a test team for the World Cup debutants.

Ireland scored a shock win over 1992 winners Pakistan to knock them out in the first round and the win over Bangladesh was their first of the second-stage Super Eights.

According to ICC rules, an associate team will enter the main ranking list if they beat two test teams.

There are now 12 teams on the one-day international ranking list, the 10 test-playing nations plus 2003 semi-finalists Kenya and Ireland.

Our best game of cricket yet, says Ireland skipper

Captain Trent Johnston described his team's World Cup Super Eights win over Bangladesh on Sunday as the "best game of cricket" he has played with Ireland.

The World Cup debutants defeated test team Bangladesh by 74 runs after scoring 243 for seven and then dismissing them for 169 in the 42nd over.

It was Ireland's second upset victory of the tournament after beating Pakistan in the group stage to oust the 1992 winners.

For beating a second test-playing nation, Ireland now join the top-tier teams in the one-day world rankings.

It was the perfect response from Johnston's side having been thrashed by defending champions Australia on Friday by nine wickets, after getting bowled out for just 91.

'BEST GAME'

"It was the best game of cricket I've been involved with in my four years with these guys, it was the best all-round performance that we've had -- all three disciplines were outstanding," Johnston said in a news conference.

"We had to bounce back from the disappointment against Australia when a lot of people were saying a lot of things about us. We had a good chat after that game and we set new goals," he added.

Australian-born Johnston was as pleased for the fans, who had travelled to Barbados having seen the team qualify unexpectedly, as he was for himself and his team mates.

"Lots of people spent a lot of money to come over and watch us play two games of cricket and in a huge game against Australia we were nothing short of disappointing so we had to turn that around quick smart and the guys did that," Johnston said.

"I'm pleased with the level of effort the guys put in because it was a first-class effort from a team that deserves to be playing this level of cricket."

With their final World Cup match approaching against a Muttiah Muralitharan-inspired Sri Lanka in Grenada in three days, the skipper said celebrations would be short-lived.

"We've got a pretty big game on Wednesday," Johnston added. "So we will have a couple of quiet ales tonight but after Wednesday we have got three or four days (spare) so, as the coach says, we can set the dogs loose then."

The victory took Ireland above Bangladesh to seventh in the Super Eights standings on a superior run rate. Both teams have two points.

 

SCOREBOARD

 

Ireland:

W Porterfield c Rafique b Mortaza 85

J Bray run out (Hasan/ Rahim) 31

E Morgan run out (Rahim/ Hossain) 5

N O'Brien c Tamim Iqbal b Hasan 10

K O'Brien run out (sub/ Rahim) 48

T Johnston c Nafees b Mortaza 30

A White run out (sub/ Rahim) 4

D Langford-Smith not out 6

AC Botha not out 1

Extras (b 1, lb 11, w 6, nb 5) 23

Total (7 wickets; 50 overs; 220 mins) 243

Fall of wickets: 1-92 (Bray, 25.3 overs), 2-101 (Morgan, 27.5 overs), 3-128 (NJ O'Brien, 33.2 overs), 4-176 (Porterfield, 41.3 overs), 5-215 (KJ O'Brien, 47.1 overs), 6-233 (White, 48.5 overs), 7-237 (Johnston, 49.3 overs)

Bowling:

Mashrafe Mortaza 10-1-38-2 (3nb)

Shahadat Hossain 9-1-51-0 (2nb, 1w)

Abdur Razzak 9-0-48-0 (2w)

Mohammad Rafique 10-0-42-0 (2w)

Saqibul Hasan 10-0-44-1

Aftab Ahmed 2-0-8-0 (1w)

 

Bangladesh:

Tamim Iqbal b Johnston 29

Shahriar Nafees c NJ O'Brien b Rankin 7

Aftab Ahmed c NJ O'Brien b Botha 12

Saqibul Hasan run out (Botha) 3

Mohammad Ashraful c Langford-Smith b Rankin 35

Habibul Bashar b Johnston 32

Mushfiqur Rahim b McCallan 16

Mashrafe Mortaza c & b Langford-Smith 0

Mohammad Rafique c Johnston b Langford-Smith 2

Abdur Razzak b McCallan 11

Shahadat Hossain not out 0

Extras (lb 4, w 18) 22

Total (all out; 41.2 overs) 169

Fall of wickets: 1-18 (Shahriar Nafees, 6.3 overs), 2-45 (Aftab Ahmed, 10.1 overs), 3-48 (Saqibul Hasan, 12.4 overs), 4-93 (Tamim Iqbal, 19.6 overs), 5-102 (Mohammad Ashraful, 21.6 overs), 6-131 (Mushfiqur Rahim, 30.4 overs), 7-134 (Mashrafe Mortaza, 31.2 overs), 8-138 (Mohammad Rafique, 33.4 overs), 9-169 (Abdur Razzak, 40.4 overs), 10-169 (Habibul Bashar, 41.2 overs)

Bowling:

Boyd Rankin 8-0-42-2 (9w)

D Langford-Smith 10-1-27-2 (3w)

Andre Botha 8-0-31-1

Trent Johnston 7.2-0-40-2 (2w)

Kyle McCallan 8-1-25-2

 

Result: Ireland won by 74 runs

Man of the Match: William Porterfield (Ireland)

Umpires BF Bowden (New Zealand) and SA Bucknor

TV umpire SJA Taufel (Australia)

Match referee JJ Crowe (New Zealand)

New Zealand reached the World Cup semi-finals following a five-wicket victory over South Africa in a Super Eights match on Saturday.

The Kiwis restricted South Africa to 193-7 before overhauling the target in the 49th over to become the second team, after holders Australia, to book their place in the last four.

Kallis blames conditions for South African loss

South African vice-captain Jacques Kallis blamed the unpredictable Caribbean weather for his team's defeat by New Zealand in a World Cup Super Eights match on Saturday.

New Zealand restricted South Africa to 193 for seven and replied with 196 with five wickets and 10 balls to spare.

Kallis felt the result was almost a forgone conclusion when New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming won the toss and opted to field after early showers and overcast skies made the batting conditions challenging in the morning.

"It's frustrating when the conditions play such a big role in the game, the toss was vital," Kallis told a news conference.

"In the first 20 overs it was a green test wicket and the guys did well to stick in there as well as we did and get a total we could bowl at."

The cloud cover dissipated and circumstances were better for batting during New Zealand's innings.

However, South Africa did not help their cause by dropping four catches.

"Who knows, if we had hung on to one or two chances maybe we could have been in a different position," Kallis said.

"Credit needs to be given to the bowlers for putting in a performance like that on what was a different wicket in the afternoon."

Kallis brushed off suggestions that the team was inconsistent even though South Africa had scored their highest World Cup tally -- 356 for four against West Indies -- at the same venue just four days ago.

"Not at all, I think it's inconsistency in the wicket," he said in reply to a question. "There's no way we would have got 350 on that wicket this morning.

"If we had managed to sneak in another 10 or 15 runs it might have made it more difficult for New Zealand and anyway it did go down to the last few overs."

Saturday's result means South Africa must beat England in their final Super Eights match in Barbados on Tuesday to reach the semis.

"It (the England match) was always a must-win game for us, it just becomes more must-win now," Kallis said.

 

 

SCOREBOARD

 

South Africa:

GC Smith c Oram b Bond 1

AB de Villiers lbw b Franklin 0

JH Kallis c Bond b Vettori 22

HH Gibbs b McMillan 60

AG Prince c Patel b McMillan 37

MV Boucher c Fulton b McMillan 16

SM Pollock not out 21

AJ Hall c Oram b Bond 17

RJ Peterson not out 8

Extras (lb 3, w 7, nb 1) 11

Total (7 wickets; 50 overs; 205 mins) 193

Fall of wickets:1-3 (Smith, 1.5 overs), 2-3 (de Villiers, 2.6 overs), 3-52 (Kallis, 19.5 overs), 4-128 (Gibbs, 36.6 overs), 5-143 (Prince, 40.5 overs), 6-149 (Boucher, 42.2 overs), 7-181 (Hall, 47.6 overs)

Bowling:

James Franklin 7-2-16-1 (1w)

Shane Bond 10-1-26-2 (1nb, 1w)

Jacob Oram 5-2-23-0

Jeetan Patel 10-1-36-0

Daniel Vettori 10-0-50-1 (1w)

Scott Styris 3-0-16-0 (2w)

Craig McMillan 5-0-23-3

 

New Zealand:

PG Fulton c Hall b Ntini 16

SP Fleming c Boucher b Pollock 50

RL Taylor lbw b Nel 10

SB Styris c Gibbs b Peterson 56

CD McMillan not out 38

JDP Oram b Nel 10

BB McCullum not out 4

Extras (lb 3, w 8, nb 1) 12

Total (5 wickets; 48.2 overs; 217 mins) 196

Fall of wickets: 1-25 (Fulton, 7.2 overs), 2-42 (Taylor, 12.2 overs), 3-120 (Fleming, 30.1 overs), 4-176 (Styris, 43.4 overs), 5-192 (Oram, 48.1 overs)

Bowling:

Shaun Pollock 10-0-30-1 (2w)

Makhaya Ntini 10-0-42-1 (1w)

Andre Nel 9.2-0-33-2 (1nb, 1w)

Andrew Hall 8-0-32-0 (2w)

Jacques Kallis 4-0-17-0

Robin Peterson 7-0-39-1 (2w)

 

Result: New Zealand won by 5 wickets

Man of the Match: Craig McMillan (New Zealand)

Umpires: MR Benson (England) and DJ Harper (Australia)

TV umpire: BR Doctrove

Match referee: BC Broad (England)

Holders Australia crushed debutants Ireland by nine-wickets on Friday to become the first team to reach the World Cup semi-finals.

Australia skittled Ireland for 91 before easily overhauling the target with more than 37 overs to spare in a Super Eights match at the Kensington Oval.

Aussies into last four after crushing Ireland

Australia qualified for the semi-finals of the World Cup after a crushing nine-wicket victory over Ireland in their Super Eights game on Friday.

Pace bowlers Glenn McGrath and Shaun Tait skittled Ireland out for 91 and the World Cup holders then knocked off the total inside 13 overs with the loss of just one wicket.

Australia captain Ricky Ponting won the toss and put in the Irish -- without a win in the second stage of the competition -- and was rewarded with impressive spells from his two opening bowlers who claimed three wickets apiece.

In reply, Adam Gilchrist scored 34 and Michael Hussey was unbeaten on 30 as Australia made easy work of a harmless Irish attack to win an utterly one-sided game with over 37 overs remaining.

The win gives the Australians 10 points from the second-stage Super Eights and they became the first team to ensure their last-four qualification.

There was a good turn-out at the Kensington Oval and a lively atmosphere but the fans saw less than half of the allotted 100 overs for the day and certainly not the level of competition that would be expected from a game at this stage of the competition.

The die was cast early on -- McGrath bowled Ireland's Australian-born opener Jeremy Bray with the sixth ball of the morning, clipping the left-hander's off stump and then in the fourth over William Porterfield was trapped leg before by Tait.

FIRST BALL

Tait, bowling consistently at over 90 mph on a track which encouraged pace bowlers with plenty of bounce, then dismissed Niall O'Brien first ball, the Irishman playing on to a full length delivery.

Ireland were two for three and Tait was on a hat-trick. Kevin O'Brien, though, survived a corker of a delivery which zipped past his outside edge.

The Irish then slumped to 12 for four when Eoin Morgan went, caught by Matthew Hayden at slip off McGrath and it could have been even worse when, with Ireland having added just five runs, Ponting dropped Andrew White at slip off Tait.

White's luck turned for the worse when he ducked into a short delivery from McGrath and he had to receive medical attention after being struck on the helmet.

Shortly afterwards White was on his way after stopping on a drive to a slower bowler from McGrath which he lobbed to Brad Hogg.

At 32 for five, Ireland's frontline batsmen had gone with McGrath enjoying figures of three for 17 from his opening seven overs.

Kevin O'Brien put up some resistance making 16 before he went, clipping Stuart Clark to Brad Hogg at mid-wicket and Ireland's Australian captain Trent Johnston showed some spirit scoring 17 before he played on to Tait who Ponting had brought back as he looked to finish off the Irish.

Tail-ender John Mooney top scored with 23, before he was run out, to give a slight degree of respectability to the score.

Ponting opted to give Michael Hussey a chance to get some runs under his belt by promoting him to open the batting and along with Adam Gilchrist they made easy work of a harmless Irish bowling line-up bringing up fifty inside seven overs.

Skipper Johnston gained some personal satisfaction bowling compatriot Gilchrist for 34 and then Andrew Symonds was dropped by Bray off John Mooney's medium-pace but that was the last slight disturbance as Australia ensured a place in the last four with two games still remaining.

Australia vs Ireland World Cup scoreboard

  

Ireland

J.Bray b McGrath 1

W.Porterfield lbw b Tait 1

E.Morgan c Hayden b McGrath 0

N.O'Brien b Tait 0

K.O'Brien c Hodge b Clark 16

A.White c Hogg b McGrath 6

T.Johnston b Tait 17

K.McCallan c Tait b Symonds 5

J.Mooney run out 23

D.Langford-Smith c Ponting b Hogg 2

B.Rankin not out 4

Extras (w-15 nb-1) 16

Total (all out, 30 overs) 91

Fall of wickets: 1-2 2-2 3-2 4-12 5-32 6-42 7-54 8-72 9-80

10-91

Bowling:

McGrath 7-1-17-3,

Tait 6-1-39-3 (1nb),

Clark 8-1-19-1,

Hogg 6-2-9-1,

Symonds 3-1-7-1

 

Australia

A.Gilchrist b Johnston 34

M.Hussey not out 30

A.Symonds not out 15

Extras (lb-4 w-8 nb-1) 13

Total (1 wicket, 12.2 overs) 92

Fall of wicket: 1-62

Bowling:

Langford-Smith 3-0-27-0 (2w),

Rankin 4.2-0-24-0 (4w),

Johnston 3-0-18-1 (1nb, 2w),

Mooney 1-0-14-0,

McCallan 1-0-5-0

 

Result: Australia won by nine wickets

Man-of-the-match: Glenn McGrath (Australia)

Left-arm fast bowler Chaminda Vaas (3-33) destroyed New Zealand's top order and spin wizard Mutthiah Muralitharan (3-32) plucked the heart out of the middle as the Kiwis turned in an uncharacteristic erratic display to reach 219 for seven off their 50 overs, with Styris finishing unbeaten on 111.

In reply, Kumar Sangakkara hit a composed, unbeaten 69 and Sanath Jayasuriya a fluent 64 as Sri Lanka stuttered briefly before strolling to 222 for four to move into a three-way tie at the top of the standings on eight points with New Zealand and Australia.

Choosing to bat after winning the toss in good conditions, New Zealand got off to a wretched start losing captain Stephen Fleming and Ross Taylor cheaply, both falling to Vaas' pace and movement.

Vaas claimed the left-handed Fleming with the fifth ball of the day before he had scored, lbw pushing forward tentatively to a delivery that came back, with the total on one.

In his next over, Vaas induced an outside edge from Taylor and wicketkeeper Sangakkara pulled off a great catch diving to his right to send the batsman back without scoring.

Precariously perched on four for two in the third over, Styris launched his rescue effort and along with opener Peter Fulton, who scored 28, restored a sense of order to the Kiwis innings.

Batting sensibly and without much alarm, the pair diligently added 67 for the second wicket from 106 balls to deny Sri Lanka's bowlers any further success. Styris faced 157 balls and struck eight fours.

After completing the hard work in facing 52 balls and striking four fours, Fulton threw away his wicket by pulling Vaas to Chamara Silva at square leg with the score on 71.

His dismissal gave Sri Lanka the opening they needed and they quickly prised out new batsman Craig McMillan (1) five runs later, sweeping at Muralitharan and top edging a catch to Silva at short fine leg.

The carnage was halted by a 64-run stand between Styris and Jacob Oram whose 31 came from 45 balls and included a six over long off off-spinner Tillekeratne Dilshan.

Attempting a similar shot two balls later, however, Oram only succeeded in holding out to Farveez Maharoof at long on in the 38th over with much work still to be done at 141 for five.

Muralitharan quickly accounted for Brendon McCullum (1) and Daniel Vettori (5) in quick succession to leave New Zealand in a spin at 155 for seven in the 41st over.

Styris, however, kept his composure and combined with James Franklin (25 off 27 balls) posted a further 64 for the eighth wicket.

Jayasuriya and Upul Tharanga gave Sri Lanka a brisk start, posting 30 for the first wicket at less than a run a ball, an assault that quickly put the Kiwis on the back foot.

Tharanga, dropped by Fleming at eight in Franklin's third over with the score on 26, failed to capitalise on the opportunity as he fell three balls later when he peeled a catch to Shane Bond at third man.

Jayasuriya, who faced 80 balls and struck five fours and one six, then partnered with Sangakkara in a 100-run, second wicket stand that virtually snatched the game from New Zealand.

The left-handed Jayasuriya, dropped by Fleming at 30, took a particular liking to fast bowler Mark Gillespie, pulling him for six over mid-wicket and smashing him for another four through long off, in the bowler's first over that cost 17.

Sangakkara, who faced 104 balls and struck only three fours, assumed the sheet anchor role throughout in the innings to ensure Sri Lanka did not fall apart.

They raised the 100-run partnership in the 26th over bowled by Oram but off the very next delivery, Jayasuriya fell to a catch at the wicket by McCullum cutting at a delivery.

Captain Mahela Jayawardene hit 15 in his 16-ball stay before gifting his wicket by pulling Vettori to substitute Hamish Marshall at short mid-wicket in the 31st over.

Silva, who stroked 25 from 34 balls with four fours, too gifted his wicket by hitting Vettori to long off where Bond engaged in catching practice in the 38th over.

Any thoughts New Zealand had of a comeback, however, were scuppered as Sangakkara remained resolute in an unbroken 44-run, fifth wicket stand with Dilshan (14 not out) that saw Sri Lanka home.

Sri Lanka end New Zealand's unbeaten run

 

Sri Lanka ended New Zealand's unbeaten World Cup run with an untroubled six-wicket win in their Super Eights match at the Grenada National Stadium on Thursday.

The 1996 champions are now equal with New Zealand and holders Australia, who have a game in hand, on eight points.

Australia, the only unbeaten team left in the tournament, top the second-round table on run rate ahead of Sri Lanka and New Zealand, whose nine-match one-day unbeaten run came to an abrupt halt.

Sri Lanka, who took the field without their injured strike bowler Lasith Malinga, restricted New Zealand to 219 for seven despite a battling, unbeaten 111 by Scott Styris. Sri Lanka reached their modest target with 29 balls to spare.

Man-of-the-match Chaminda Vaas dismissed captain Stephen Fleming and Ross Taylor for ducks and Muttiah Muralitharan took three for 32 to move equal top on the wicket-takers' table with 15 alongside Malinga and Australia's Glenn McGrath.

Sanath Jayasuriya (64) and Kumar Sangakkara (69 not out) shared a second-wicket partnership of 100, stroking the ball comfortably around the field with wristy cuts, pushes and drives.

Left-arm spinner Daniel Vettori took two for 35 to become the third New Zealander to capture 200 one-day international wickets.

After coming to the crease with New Zealand reeling at four for two, Styris took 20 balls to get off the mark, opening his account by driving Vaas off the back foot to the cover boundary.

He lofted Farveez Maharoof for a boundary then cut the next ball for four.

BRIGHT PARTNERSHIP

He lost Peter Fulton with the score on 71, caught by Chamara Silva off Vaas for 28. Silva took his second catch when Craig McMillan (1) top-edged a sweep off Muralitharan.

Styris scored his fourth half-century of the tournament from 82 balls with six fours and set about restoring the innings in partnership with Jacob Oram (31).

They took the total to 141 when Oram decided it was time to take control. He hit Tillakaratne Dilshan for a six over long-on, the first boundary for 19 overs, but was well held by Maharoof trying for a repeat off the next ball.

James Franklin (25 not out) and Styris shared a bright unbeaten eighth-wicket partnership of 64 from 9.1 overs to take their team past the 200 mark.

Styris reached his second World Cup century from 152 balls with a pull shot for four and the pair took 17 off the 50th over bowled by Vaas.

The Sri Lankans got away to a flying start helped by three dropped catches.

Fleming floored Upul Tharanga on eight and McMillan spilled Jayasuriya on 30. McMillan, at mid-on, got his fingertips only to a chance from Sangakkara when the Sri Lankan wicketkeeper had made nine.

Tharanga made only three more runs before he was caught on the third-man boundary by Shane Bond off Franklin.

Jayasuriya greeted Mark Gillespie's first ball of the tournament by hooking it for six and the second for four. The over cost 17 runs.

He brought up his 63rd one-day international half-century from 65 balls with three fours and a six, falling finally when he was caught behind off Oram by Brendon McCullum standing up to the stumps.

Sangakkara completed his 39th one-day century from 56 balls with one boundary and ended the match with a four off Gillespie.

SCOREBOARD

New Zealand:

Peter Fulton c Silva b Vaas 28

Stephen Fleming lbw b Vaas 0

Ross Taylor c Sangakkara b Vaas 0

Scott Styris not out 111

Craig McMillan c Silva b Muralitharan 1

Jacob Oram c Maharoof b Dilshan 31

Brendon McCullum lbw b Muralitharan 1

Daniel Vettori c Silva b Muralitharan 5

James Franklin not out 25

Extras: (b 2, lb 2, w 8, nb 5) 17

Total: (for 7 wickets in 50 overs) 219

Fall of wickets: 1-1 (Fleming, 0.5 overs), 2-4 (Taylor, 2.1), 3-71 (Fulton, 19.5), 4-77 (McMillan, 22.2), 5-141 (Oram, 37.3), 6-145 (McCullum, 38.2), 7-155 (Vettori, 40.5)

Bowling:

Chaminda Vaas 9-2-33-3 (1w)

Dilhara Fernando 7-2-31-0 (3nb, 1w)

Farveez Maharoof 6-0-31-0 (1nb)

Muttiah Muralitharan 10-0-32-3 (1nb, 2w)

Sanath Jayasuriya 10-0-44-0

Tillakaratne Dilshan 8-1-44-1

Sri Lanka:

Upul Tharanga c Bond b Franklin 11

Sanath Jayasuriya c McCullum b Oram 64

Kumar Sangakkara not out 69

Mahela Jayawardene c sub (H Marshall) b Vettori 15

Chamara Silva c Bond b Vettori 23

Tilekaratne Dilshan not out 14

Extras; (b 4, lb 7, w 7, nb 8) 26

Total: (for 4 wickets in 45.1 overs) 222

Fall of wickets: 1-30 (Tharanga, 4.4 overs), 2-130 (Jayasuriya, 25.3), 3-152 (Jayawardene, 30.3), 4-180 (Silva, 37.5)

Bowling:

James Franklin 8-0-49-1 (1nb, 2w)

Shane Bond 8-0-26-0

Mark Gillespie 6.1-1-42-0 (4nb)

Daniel Vettori 10-0-35-2 (1nb, 1w)

Scott Styris 7-1-28-0

Jacob Oram 6-0-31-1 (2nb)

Result: Sri Lanka won by 6 wickets

Man of the Match: Chaminda Vaas (Sri Lanka) Umpires: Asad Rauf (Pakistan) and Billy Doctrove TV umpire: Aleem Dar (Pakistan)

Match referee: Mike Procter (South Africa)

England overcame another nervy batting display to defeat Bangladesh by four wickets in their World Cup Super Eights match on Wednesday to keep their semi-final hopes alive.

England pacemen led by man-of-the-match Sajid Mahmood skittled out Bangladesh for 143 in the 38th over on a bouncy Kensington Oval pitch.

However, Bangladesh bowlers piled on the pressure as the new pitch slowed down before England reached 147 for six in the 45th over.

It was England's first win over a test-playing nation at this World Cup but will have convinced few that they can still make a serious bid for their first title.

England were reeling at 110 for six as Bangladesh, who upset South Africa in their previous game, fought superbly until the experienced seventh-wicket pair Paul Collingwood (23 not out) and wicketkeeper Paul Nixon (20 not out) guided them to victory.

"It was too tight," England skipper Michael Vaughan told reporters. "We would have liked to chase down the target with much more confidence than we did."

"They made it difficult and their spinners bowled very straight," he said. "We were desperate to get two points."

SECOND WIN

England now have four points after their second win in four games with matches left against South Africa and hosts West Indies. Bangladesh have two points from four games.

Bangladesh left-arm seamer Syed Rasel and left-arm spinners Abdur Razzak and Mohammad Rafique grabbed two wickets each to rattle England.

Rasel had makeshift opener Ian Bell (0) caught at point and trapped Andrew Strauss leg before for 23.

Left-arm spinner Abdur Razzak then removed Vaughan for a chancy 30 before taking the prize scalp of Kevin Pietersen for 10 runs.

Vaughan, dropped on five by wicketkeeper Mushfiqur Rahim after nicking Rasel, top-edged a sweep to Habibul Bashar at short fine leg.

Pietersen, who hit a hundred in the seven-wicket defeat against Australia, stepped out and failed to check his shot as Razzak pitched it short to offer a tame catch to mid-wicket.

Bangladesh were reeling at 65 for six in the morning before Saqibul Hasan top-scored with a defiant 57 not out.

Mahmood took three for 27 after doing the damage with fellow new ball bowler James Anderson (2-30) and Andrew Flintoff.

Left-arm spinner Monty Panesar (3-25) then ran through the lower order batsmen.

Bangladesh, who suffered heavy defeats against champions Australia and New Zealand before their shock win over South Africa in the Super Eights, showed poor technique against the short ball.

Five of the top six batsmen failed to reach double figures after Mahmood removed openers Tamim Iqbal (8) and Shahriar Nafees (9).

In between, Vaughan dropped Nafees at mid-on off Mahmood but recovered quickly to run out Habibul Bashar (4) after the struggling Bangladesh skipper stood watching instead of completing the single.

"I was embarrassed and flicked the ball to Nicko (Nixon) in disgust," Vaughan said. "Funny things happen."

Left-hander Saqibul added 47 runs for the seventh wicket with Mashrafe Mortaza (13) as the pitch eased, hitting six fours and a six in his 95-ball knock.

England stumble on with nervy win over Bangladesh

England kept their semi-final hopes alive with an unconvincing four-wicket win over Bangladesh in the World Cup Super Eights on Wednesday.

Paceman Sajid Mahmood took advantage of a bouncier pitch to take three wickets and help bowl Bangladesh out for 143 in 37.2 overs in the first match at the renovated Kensington Oval.

England, inconsistent all tournament, lost wickets at regular intervals in the run chase but reached their target in 44.5 overs.

Michael Vaughan's men must now beat South Africa and hosts West Indies to maintain a good chance of progressing while Bangladesh are all but out of the reckoning.

England stay in contention for semis with Bangladesh win

England kept alive their hopes of reaching the World Cup semi-finals with a four-wicket win over Bangladesh in a Super Eights match on Wednesday.

Pace bowlers Sajid Mahmood and James Anderson picked up five wickets between them to dismiss Bangladesh for 143 before England overhauled the target with more than five overs to spare.

 

SCOREBOARD

 

Bangladesh:

Tamim Iqbal c Collingwood b Mahmood 8

Shahriar Nafees c Strauss b Mahmood 9

Habibul Bashar run out (Vaughan/Nixon) 4

Mushfiqur Rahim b Flintoff 7

Saqibul Hasan not out 57

Mohammad Ashraful c Nixon b Anderson 1

Aftab Ahmed c Nixon b Anderson 10

Mashrafe Mortaza b Panesar 13

Mohammad Rafique c Strauss b Panesar 0

Abdur Razzak c Collingwood b Panesar 15

Syed Rasel c Flintoff b Mahmood 4

Extras (lb 3, w 10, nb 2) 15

Total (all out; 37.2 overs; 175 mins) 143

Fall of wickets: 1-9 (Tamim Iqbal, 1.3 overs), 2-23 (Habibul Bashar, 5.5 overs), 3-26 (Shahriar Nafees, 7.4 overs), 4-40 (Mushfiqur Rahim, 10.4 overs), 5-47 (Mohammad Ashraful, 13.1 overs), 6-65 (Aftab Ahmed, 15.2 overs), 7-112 (Mashrafe Mortaza, 28.6 overs), 8-113 (Mohammad Rafique, 30.4 overs), 9-137 (Abdur Razzak, 36.4 overs), 10-143 (Syed Rasel, 37.2 overs)

Bowling:

JM Anderson 8-0-30-2 (4w)

SI Mahmood 8.2-0-27-3 (2w)

A Flintoff 8-0-38-1 (2nb, 4w)

MS Panesar 7-2-25-3

PD Collingwood 4-0-14-0

RS Bopara 2-0-6-0

 

England:

IR Bell c Aftab Ahmed b Syed Rasel 0

MP Vaughan c Habibul Bashar b Abdur Razzak 30

AJ Strauss lbw b Syed Rasel 23

KP Pietersen c sub (Farhad Reza) b Abdur Razzak 10

PD Collingwood not out 23

A Flintoff b Mohammad Rafique 23

RS Bopara b Mohammad Rafique 0

PA Nixon not out 20

Extras (b 4, lb 8, w 6) 18

Total (6 wickets; 44.5 overs) 147

Fall of wickets: 1-7 (Bell, 3.3 overs), 2-48 (Strauss, 13.3 overs), 3-70 (Vaughan, 20.5 overs), 4-79 (Pietersen, 22.6 overs), 5-110 (Flintoff, 31.2 overs), 6-110 (Bopara, 31.6 overs)

Bowling:

Mashrafe Mortaza 8.5-3-28-0 (3w)

Syed Rasel 10-3-25-2

Abdur Razzak 10-1-30-2

Mohammad Rafique 10-3-33-2 (2w)

Saqibul Hasan 6-0-19-0

 

Result: England won by 4 wickets

Man of the Match: SI Mahmood (England)

Umpires: SA Bucknor and SJA Taufel (Australia)

TV umpire: RE Koertzen (South Africa)

Match referee: JJ Crowe (New Zealand)

South Africa's AB de Villiers played through cramp, dehydration and heat exhaustion to bury hosts West Indies' World Cup dreams and resurrect his own team's semi-final hopes on Tuesday.

Opener De Villiers' aggressive 146 was the cornerstone of South Africa's total of 356 for four, their record World Cup score.

South Africa restricted West Indies to a reply of 289 for nine to win the second-stage Super Eights match by 67 runs.

Victory virtually ensures the West Indies' elimination barring a run of freak results and leaves South Africa much closer to reaching the last four despite Saturday's shock defeat by Bangladesh in Guyana.

De Villiers reached his century off 114 balls and then he launched an onslaught that earned him his last 46 runs off just 16 deliveries.

His innings was interrupted several times for treatment for what South African media liaison officer Gordon Templeton later told reporters was cramp, heat exhaustion and dehydration.

"When I reached a hundred I decided to go after it and play through the cramp," De Villiers told a news conference.

"I was actually trying to get out but it didn't work out that way -- that's a joke.

"The ball just went in the gaps and I stayed there much longer than I thought I would."

PIVOTAL STAND

Jacques Kallis (81) and De Villiers shared a second-wicket stand of 170, a performance described as pivotal by South African captain Graeme Smith.

"It was always going to be difficult to bat up front because there was a lot of dampness in the pitch," Smith told a news conference.

"Jacques got the momentum started and AB finished it off with a superb knock."

Smith said his team had been determined to prove a point in the wake of the criticism following their performance against Bangladesh.

"Some of the stuff that went around back home about the team being divided and in pieces and fighting, it was all a load of crap," Smith said. "So it was nice for the guys to bounce back in the way they did."

Windies all but out after South Africa defeat 

Hosts West Indies were all but eliminated from the World Cup after a superb knock of 146 from AB de Villiers led South Africa to a 67-run victory in a Super Eights match on Tuesday.

The result condemned Brian Lara's side to a fourth successive defeat and they now rely on other results going their way to have a mathematical chance of reaching the semi-finals.

De Villiers, helped by Jacques Kallis (81), put on 170 for the second wicket as South Africa made 356 for four. Herschelle Gibbs and Mark Boucher scored half-centuries in an explosive end to the innings.

After opener Shivnarine Chanderpaul went cheaply, Chris Gayle and Devon Smith made a promising and brisk start for West Indies but both got out in the thirties.

Although Ramnaresh Sarwan made 92, the hosts were always behind the run-rate and ended up 289 for nine.

We didn't deserve any better, says dejected Lara

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 to South Africa on Tuesday, 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 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.

'BAD CRICKET'

"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.

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 our team, we did not stand up very well to it," he said.

Lara, 37, had said prior to 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".

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).

 

SCOREBOARD

 

South Africa:

AB de Villiers c Chanderpaul b Collymore 146

Graeme Smith c Ramdin b Collymore 7

Jacques Kallis b Gayle 81

Herschelle Gibbs not out 61

Mark Boucher c & b Bravo 52

Shaun Pollock not out 0

Extras: (lb 3, w 6) 9

Total: (4 wickets; 50 overs; 233 mins) 356

Fall of wickets: 1-21 (Smith, 6.6 overs), 2-191 (Kallis, 35.2), 3-261 (de Villiers, 43.1), 4-347 (Boucher, 49.2)

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

Kieron Pollard 3-0-20-0

Chris Gayle 6-0-42-1

Ramnaresh Sarwan 4-0-30-0

 

West Indies:

Chris Gayle run out (Prince) 32

Shivnarine Chanderpaul c Smith b Pollock 4

Devon Smith c de Villiers b Nel 33

Brian Lara b Kallis 21

Ramnaresh Sarwan c Pollock b Ntini 92

Dwayne Bravo c Gibbs b Pollock 6

Kieron Pollard b Kallis 10

Denesh Ramdin c sub (RJ Peterson) b Smith 4

Ian Bradshaw c Hall b Smith 20

Daren Powell not out 46

Corey Collymore not out 5

Extras: (lb 4, w 2) 6

Total: (9 wickets; 48.6 overs) 279

Fall of wickets: 1-5 (Chanderpaul, 2.1 overs), 2-65 (Smith, 10.6), 3-69 (Gayle, 11.3), 4-119 (Lara, 19.4), 5-142 (Bravo, 24.1), 6-169 (Pollard, 29.5), 7-181 (Ramdin, 31.5), 8-213 (Sarwan, 38.1), 9-254 (Bradshaw, 45.3)

Bowling:

Shaun Pollock 8-0-33-2

Makhaya Ntini 10-1-57-1

Andre Nel 10-0-54-1

Andrew Hall 8.6-0-49-0 (2w)

Jacques Kallis 8-0-36-2

Graeme Smith 4-0-46-2

 

Result: South Africa won by 67 runs

Man of the Match: AB de Villiers (South Africa)

Umpires: MR Benson (England) and DJ Harper (Australia)

TV umpire: Aleem Dar (Pakistan)

Match referee: BC Broad (England)

Australia's three seamers - Glen McGrath, Shaun Tait and Nathan Bracken - evenly shared nine wickets as they combined to bowl out England for 247 off 49.5 overs as hit Pietersen 104 off 122 balls.

Captain Ricky Ponting then hit 86 off 106 balls with seven fours to help steer his side to 248 for three off 47.2 overs as the Aussies completed their sixth win in the tournament and their 25th straight in CWC since 1999.

Ponting and Michael Clarke, who hit a supportive undefeated 55 off 63 balls with just two boundaries, paced their team to victory in a stand of 112 for the third wicket after they came together at 89 for two, having lost Mathew Hayden for 41 and Adam Gilchrist 27.

However, Pietersen's effort was commendable as he shared in a stand of 140 for the third wicket with Ian Bell who hit 77 that threatened to take England to a bigger total at one stage.

But Bell's dismissal triggered a middle-order collapse in which three wickets fell for 15 runs before Ravi Bopara who hit 21 from 36 balls and Pietersen added a useful 51 for sixth wicket which revived the innings.

Earlier, England had lost two quick wickets in 15 balls after captain Michael Vaughan (5), who won the toss and batted first, was bowled off the inside-edge for five.

He was dislodged by fast bowler Shan Tait, who also accounted for the recalled left-hander Andrew Strauss (7).

They were 24 for two in the sixth over when Bell, who opened in place of the dropped Ed Joyce, was joined by Pietersen as they set about repairing the early damage.

Pietersen, who struck six fours and a six, showed his attacking instinct when he danced into a delivery from veteran Glenn McGrath to on-drive him for a delightful boundary before he lashed 10 off left-arm spinner Brad Hogg's first over.

Bell followed suit by spanking McGrath for three fours in one over as they forced captain Ponting to rotate his bowlers in short spells.

They brought up the 100 partnership off 107 balls before Pietersen was dropped on 63 at mid-off by Hayden off Tait who had returned for his second spell.

But Bell, who looked entrenched although he gave a difficult chance to Ponting at mid-wicket, gave his hand away when he drove a lap-high catch to cover off McGrath in the 30th over to trigger a slide.

The rampaging Tait swung a delivery away from Paul Collingwood which he edged to the wicket-keeper to make it 167 for four before Hogg, switched to the opposite end, lured the out-of-form Andrew Flintoff (4) out of his crease and Adam Gilchrist completed the stumping three runs later.

Pietersen, who continued to bat solidly, found a useful ally in Bopara, the Man-of-the-Match in the two-run loss to Sir Lanka, as they brought England back into the game.

But the return of left-arm seamer Nathan Bracken broke the stand when Bopara flicked a catch to deep mid-wicket in the 47th over as England reached 230 for six.

Pietersen soon followed, lofting a catch to wide long-on where Michael Clarke held a well-judged catch.

It was then 240 for seven before the eighth wicket of Sajid Mahmood (0) fell two balls later at the same score.

Paul Nixon hammered McGrath for a six over wide long-on in the last over before the veteran seamer and CWC's all-time leading wicket-taker had him caught in the deep next ball.

The 37-year-old McGrath then trapped James Anderson (0) with the fifth ball to finish with three for 62 from 9.5 overs.

McGrath has taken 15 wickets so far in the tournament and his overall tally is 60. Bracken bagged three for 33 and Tait captured three for 41.

Gilchrist and Hayden survived confident leg-before-wicket appeals in the first two overs before they put on 57 for first wicket when Gilchrist mis-timed a drive of Flintoff to cover and departed for 27.

Hayden was looking solid for 41 off 50 balls with six fours before he lost his off-stump to Collingwood's first ball.

Ponting, with some trademark fluent drives, and excellent running between the wickets with Clarke, then batted the England bowlers out of the match.

After Ponting's dismissal when he was run out by Collingwood's pick-up and direct hit at point attempting a cheeky single, Andrew Symonds hit 28 off as many balls including four fours and a six in an unbroken stand of 48 with Clarke to secure the victory.

Symonds launched into Collingwood, hitting him for a four and then a six off successive balls before almost being caught on the wide mid-wicket boundary by Pietersen, who took the catch but could not maintain his balance inches from the rope and released the ball before skipping over the rope.

Ponting helps Australia waltz past England

 

Captain Ricky Ponting hit 86 to lead a dominant Australia to a seven-wicket win over struggling England in the World Cup Super Eights on Sunday.

Kevin Pietersen struck 104 in England's modest 247 all out but Australia reached their target with 16 balls to spare to severely damage their old rivals' chances of making the semi-finals.

Michael Clarke also made a half-century for the defending champions, who are on course to finish top of the Super Eights table.

England must win their three remaining second stage games against Bangladesh, South Africa and hosts West Indies to have a good chance of progressing to the last four.

 

SCOREBOARD

Match No. 35th, Australia v England, Super Eight, Sir Vivian Richards Stadium, North Sound, Antigua (neutral venue), April 8

 

England:

Ian Bell c Hussey b McGrath 77

Michael Vaughan b Tait 5

Andrew Strauss b Tait 7

Kevin Pietersen c Clarke b Bracken 104

Paul Collingwood c Gilchrist b Tait 2

Andrew Flintoff st Gilchrist b Hogg 4

Ravi Bopara c Hussey b Bracken 21

Paul Nixon c Hodge b McGrath 8

Sajid Mahmood c Hodge b Bracken 0

Monty Panesar not out 1

James Anderson lbw b McGrath 0

Extras: (b 4, lb 4, w 7, nb 3) 18

Total: (all out; 49.5 overs) 247

Fall of wickets: 1-10 (Vaughan, 3.2 overs), 2-24 (Strauss, 5.6), 3-164 (Bell, 29.3), 4-167 (Collingwood, 30.3), 5-179 (Flintoff, 35.3), 6-230 (Bopara, 46.2), 7-240 (Pietersen, 48.4), 8-240 (Mahmood, 48.6), 9-246 (Nixon, 49.2), 10-247 (Anderson, 49.5)

Bowling:

Nathan Bracken 10-1-33-3 (1w)

Shaun Tait 10-0-41-3 (2nb, 3w)

Glenn McGrath 9.5-0-62-3 (1w)

Michael Clarke 4-0-27-0

Brad Hogg 10-0-36-1(1w)

Andrew Symonds 6-0-40-0

 

Australia:

Adam Gilchrist c Collingwood b Flintoff 27

Matthew Hayden b Collingwood 41

Ricky Ponting run out (Collingwood) 86

Stuart Clarke not out 55

Andrew Symonds not out 28

Extras: (b 1, lb 5, w 5) 11

Total: (3 wickets; 47.2 overs) 248

Fall of wickets: 1-57 (Gilchrist, 10.6 overs), 2-89 (Hayden, 19.1), 3-201 (Ponting, 40.1)

Bowling:

James Anderson 10-1-49-0 (3w)

Sajid Mahmood 9.2-1-60-0 (1w)

Andrew Flintoff 10-1-35-1

Monty Panesar 9-0-48-0

Paul Collingwood 9-0-50-1 (1w)

 

Result: Australia won by seven wickets

Man of the Match: Shaun Tait (Australia)

Umpires: BF Bowden (New Zealand) and RE Koertzen (South Africa)

TV umpire: Asad Rauf (Pakistan)

Match referee: MJ Procter (South Africa)

World Cup hosts West Indies fell to their third successive defeat as a superb century from Sanath Jayasuriya led Sri Lanka to a 113-run victory in their Super Eights game on Sunday.

West Indies, beaten by Australia and New Zealand in their opening two matches, no longer have their destiny in their own hands and are relying on other results going their way if they are to have any hope of reaching the semi-finals.

Jayasuriya, who hit 10 fours and four sixes as he struck 115 in 101 balls, was ably supported by captain Mahela Jayawardene who made 82 as the pair put on 183 for the third wicket.

The West Indies never recovered from the early losses of Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo and captain Brian Lara as they fell to 42 for three.

Guyanese pairing Shivnarine Chanderpaul (76) and Ramnaresh Sarwan (44) put on a 92 partnership but their run-rate was too slow to leave the lower order with any real chance of making the target and Jayasuriya added to his fine display by claiming three wickets with the ball.

Once again, Lara's side were comprehensively outclassed in every department -- including in the field where the zesty approach of the Sri Lankans contrasted with the languid appearance of the West Indians.

The West Indies captain has lamented the failure of his frontline batsmen to deliver match-winning innings and Jayasuriya delivered an example of the kind of prolonged concentration and effective strokeplay Lara has been pleading for.

The day had begun promisingly for the 12,208 crowd, when opening bowler Daren Powell gained an early breakthrough, clean bowling Upul Tharanga to make it 18 for one.

Then recalled left-arm seamer Ian Bradshaw justified his return when he tempted Kumar Sangakkara into an edge which Denesh Ramdin snaffled up.

AGGRESSIVE STROKEPLAY

Sri Lanka were struggling at 35 for two but then, as so often, Jayasuriya took a grip on the game with his punchy and aggressive strokeplay.

Medium pacer Dwayne Smith came in for some particular punishment, going for 18 in one over, with Jayasuriya crashing three fours and a six.

In the process the 37-year-old Sri Lankan overtook Pakistan's Inzamam-ul-Haq to become the second highest run scorer in one day cricket after Sachin Tendulkar.

Along with some patient support from skipper Jayawardene, Jayasuriya rattled up his 25th one day international century in 86 balls as the West Indian seamers caused him little trouble.

Lara's charges looked short on motivation and confidence in the field and his bowling attack lacked penetration with the Sri Lankan pair choosing their own tempo for run-making.

When Powell finally broke through, a tired Jayasuriya playing on, the 1996 world champions had reached 218 with 11 overs to go and were well poised for a large total.

Chamara Silva joined Jayawardene and took the total on to 251 before Dwayne Bravo dismissed the Sri Lanka captain with a yorker.

Tillakaratne Dilshan brought up the 300 in style off the last ball of the innings when he spotted Bravo's slower ball and despatched it into the stands.

Lara attempted to give the reply some early momentum by sending in the attack-minded Bravo to open with Gayle but once again the captain's attempt to halt the drift towards defeat was in vain.

The three early losses, including Lara's own wicket as he was superbly stumped by Kumar Sangakkara off left-arm seamer Chaminda Vaas, left Chanderpaul and Sarwan to rebuild but in doing so they fell heavily behind the pace required.

Chanderpaul, the only West Indian to have made a century in the tournament, showed his talent again with five sixes in his innings but once he had lost Sarwan, just as the pair threatened to up the tempo, a struggle turned to surrender as the middle and lower order collapsed - the last seven wickets going for just 56 runs.

SCOREBOARD

Match No. 30, West Indies v Sri Lanka, Super Eight, Providence Stadium, Guyana, April 1.

Sri Lanka:

Upul Tharanga b Powell 8

Sanath Jayasuriya b Powell 115

Kumar Sangakkara c Ramdin b Bradshaw 7

Mahela Jayawardene b Bravo 82

Chamara Silva c Lara b Sarwan 23

Tillekeratne Dilshan not out 39

Russel Arnold not out 4

Extras: (lb 7, w 13, nb 5) 25

Total: (5 wickets; 50 overs; 234 mins) 303

Fall of wickets: 1-18 (Tharanga, 5.5 overs), 2-35 (Sangakkara, 8.4), 3-218 (Jayasuriya, 38.4), 4-251 (Jayawardene, 44.1), 5-268 (Silva, 46.4)

Bowling:

Jerome Taylor 8-1-32-0 (4w)

Daren Powell 10-1-38-2 (2nb, 2w)

Ian Bradshaw 10-0-67-1 (1nb, 1w)

Dwayne Smith 3-0-23-0

Chris Gayle 9-0-60-0 (2nb, 3w)

Dwayne Bravo 7-0-59-1 (2w)

Ramnaresh Sarwan 3-0-17-1 (1w)

West Indies:

Chris Gayle c Fernando b Malinga 10

Dwayne Bravo b Vaas 21

Shivnarine Chanderpaul b Malinga 76

Brain Lara st Sangakkara b Vaas 2

Ramnaresh Sarwan st Sangakkara b Jayasuriya 44

Marlon Samuels lbw b Muralitharan 3

Dwayne Smith run out (Malinga/Sangakkara) 0

Denesh Ramdin c Vaas b Jayasuriya 2

Ian Bradshaw not out 6

Jerome Taylor lbw b Muralitharan 13

Daren Powell b Jayasuriya 2

Extras: (lb 1, w 8, nb 2) 11

Total: (10 wickets; 44.3 overs) 190

Fall of wickets: 1-20 (Gayle, 5.2 overs), 2-40 (Bravo, 8.3), 3-42 (Lara, 10.1), 4-134 (Sarwan, 34.2), 5-147 (Samuels, 35.6), 6-148 (Smith, 36.4), 7-158 (Ramdin, 38.1), 8-173 (Chanderpaul, 41.2), 9-187 (Taylor, 43.4), 10-190 (Powell, 44.3)

Bowling:

Chaminda Vaas 8-1-19- 2 (1nb)

Lasith Malinga 5-0-34-2 (2w)

Dilhara Fernando 7-3-19-0 (1nb, 1w)

Tillekeratne Dilshan 4-0-11-0

Tillekeratne Arnold 3-0-9-0

Muttiah Muralitharan 9-0-59-2 (1w)

Sanath Jayasuriya 8.3-0-38-3

Result: Sri Lanka won by 113 runs

Man of the Match: Sanath Jayasuriya (Sri Lanka)

Umpires: MR Benson (England) and DJ Harper (Australia)

TV umpire: SJA Taufel (Australia)

Match referee: JJ Crowe (New Zealand)

Reserve umpire SA Bucknor