India beat South Africa by 37 runs; storm into Twenty20 Cricket World Semi-Final
Advertisements
India beat South Africa by 37 runs in the Twenty20 World Cup Group E match in
Durban on Thursday. India and New Zealand advance to the semi-finals, South
Africa are eliminated.
Earlier, RP Singh gave the team an early breakthrough by scalping two wickets
in the second over. He dismissed Herschelle Gibbs before bundling up skipper
Graeme Smith. Next, Sreesanth trapped AB de Villiers for a paltry score of
one.
Justin Kemp was run out before RP returned to pack off dangerman Mark Boucher
for a duck.
Electing to bat, India posted a modest total after the Proteas rattled the
top order. They suffered a major setback early as Pollock struck in close
succession to remove Gambhir and Karthik. The former hit 19 while the latter
returned for a duck. In the next over, Ntini scalped the key wicket of Sehwag
for 11.
The next blow to India's innings came when Morkel dismissed Uthappa for
15. Rohit Sharma scored an unbeaten 50 while Dhoni made 45 in a stand of 85 for
the fifth wicket to boost the run rate. They hit a few powerful shots to set the
momentum as India finished with a decent total.
Yuvraj Singh, who became the first player to hit six sixes in an over in
Twenty20 matches in India's win over England on Wednesday, was ruled out with an
elbow injury and replaced by Dinesh Karthik.
Pace bowler Makhaya Ntini, who missed South Africa's win over New Zealand on
Wednesday with a stomach virus, returns to action in place of Andre Nel.
