Thursday, April 19, 2007

More Cricket News

ZA are in the semifinals. After a disappointing loss to the Kiwis, which pretty much was decided at the coin toss, they’ve crushed England. Wicked bad.

Okay first, the NZ match. We lost the toss and were put into bat. The pitch was really quite wet, which slowed down the bowling and led to them losing some quick wickets, which led them to posting a low run total. They bowled and fielded pretty well, although they dropped a couple of key balls that could have been crucial wickets. In the end they did well, taking NZ to the 48th over, but they lost. If we had won that one, we’d have qualified for the semis sooner, but we could afford to lose that one. The match against England had us worried. But we didn’t need to…

England chose to bat first, and only posted 153 runs, going all out after 48 overs. They got bowled every which way and just didn’t get going. Captain Graeme Smith and AB de Villiers got off with a great partnership, just whacking the ball every which way. I missed AB de Villiers wicket, but Jacques Kallis came in and barely needed to strike at all. Smith got a half-century and kept going, getting 89 runs as he iced it with a boundary. In the end, we won by 9 wickets, but that doesn’t begin to describe the drubbing that we gave the Brits. I mean, we didn’t even need half of the 50 overs to get the runs to win.

Bowler Andrew Hall took Man of the Match, after getting 5 wickets (maiden 5 wicket performance in ODI) and only allowing 16 runs. Folks here are pretty jazzed, although the next match against ‘Stralya will be tough. The Ozzies have yet to lose in the tournament. They just played Sri Lanka, who are the third team in the semis, and who South Africa beat. The Sri Lankans started strong, and looked like they had spin-bowler Shaun Tait’s number. But damn, those Ozzies are good. They got some quick wickets and shut SL down. Oh, and they did grind Ireland into a green puddle, with enough daylight left to go to the beach afterwards. Okay, okay. If you're reading this, chances are you have almost no idea what any of this means except the good part. ZA is in the Semis! Wish us luck against Australia on Monday!

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