Cardiff: South Africa advanced into the
semi-finals of the Champions Trophy on superior net run-rate after their
rain-marred match against the West Indies in Cardiff on Friday ended in
a tie.
The West Indies, who had to win this match to go through to the
last four, were exactly level on the Duckworth/Lewis system for
rain-affected matches at 190 for six off 26.1 overs when Australian
umpires Rod Tucker and Steve Davis decided the rain was too heavy to
continue and took the players off the field for the final time at 7.43pm
local time (1843 GMT).
Crucially, shortly before play was abandoned, with West Indies then
ahead of their D/L target, Kieron Pollard was caught for 28 by Dale
Steyn at third man off Ryan McLaren and his exit swung the match back to
parity.
South Africa made 230 for six off their 31 overs, leaving the West Indies a target of 231 in 31 to win.
The Proteas joined already-qualified India as one of the two semi-finalists from Group B.
For South Africa, often dubbed 'chokers' for throwing away
promising positions, this result was in marked contrast to their 1999
World Cup semifinal tie with Australia at Edgbaston, which saw them go
out following a pool loss to the Aussies, and their exit from the 2003
World Cup on home soil when a failure to correctly interpret the D/L
sheet saw them tie with Sri Lanka, rather than win, in Durban.
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