Inspired India evict South Africa

A purist's delight: Rohit Sharma creams one through cover , Group E, ICC

World Twenty20, Durban, September 20, 2007

Spirited India oust South Africa to reach T20 semis

DURBAN, September 20: Riding on Rohit Sharma's maiden fifty and RP Singh's four-wicket haul that wrecked South Africa, a spirited India spanked the hosts by 37 runs to storm into the semi-finals of the Twenty20 cricket World Cup here tonight. With this defeat, South Africa crashed out of the tournament with New Zealand making it to the semi-finals on better run rate. India will now meet Australia in the first semi-final on Saturday, while New Zealand meet Pakistan in the second match the same day. Batting first, India survived a top order collapse to score 153 for five with Sharma (50 not out) and Mahendra Singh Dhoni (45) propping up the innings. In reply, South Africa could manage only 116 for nine with Albie Morkel and Mark Boucher contributing 36 each. Defending a not-so-impressive target, Indian bowlers decided to have a go at the hosts and RP Singh led the way with a two-wicket burst in his first over. His first delivery trapped Herschelle Gibbs (1) and the fourth delivery kissed Graeme Smith's blade before nestling into the gloves of an airborne Dinesh Karthik, who dived full length to his left to pull off an absolute stunner. South Africa slumped to 12 for two and the worse was yet to come. S Sree Santh then joined the party and AB de Villiers was beaten by the pace as the delivery struck his pad in front of the wicket and Simon Taufel had no qualms upholding the appeal. Lot depended on Justin Kemp (5) but Rohit Sharma's brilliant piece of fielding meant it was not to be his day. Boucher had pushed it to off-side and set out for a single when the fielder swooped on the ball and broke the stumps with a direct hit with Kemp yet to make his ground. And it was double whammy in the sixth over as RP Singh crashed the fifth delivery through Shaun Pollock's (0) gate as the hosts lost top half of their batting order with the score reading a mere 31. Boucher (36, 41b, 4x4) and Morkel (36,) stemmed the rot with Boucher hitting Harbhajan Singh for three fours in a row in the 13th over. However in the 17th over, Boucher dragged a Sree Santh delivery onto his stumps to end the 69-run stand and Harbhajan had Vernon Philander stumped in the next over. RP Singh then returned to remove Morkel and the game was over by then. Earlier, Rohit Sharma's unbeaten 50 and his 85-run stand with Dhoni bailed India out of a morass following a top order slump. Having won the toss and deciding to bat first, India were in dire straits at 33 for three in the sixth over. And it was only to due a fighting fifth wicket stand between Sharma and Dhoni that pulled the side from rut to respectability. The side was clearly missing Yuvraj Singh, architect of Wednesday's sensational win against England, who sat out with an elbow injury. Sharma, who made his debut just 24 hours ago against England but didn't get to bat, batted sensibly and with controlled aggression to remain unbeaten on 50, reaching his half century in style by pulling the last ball of the innings from Johan van der Wath for a six over square leg. He faced 40 balls and hit seven fours and two sixes. Dhoni batted in customary fashion to score a quickfire 45 off 33 balls before being run out in the final over. He hit four fours and one six. India's fifth wicket pair took 55 balls to add 85 crucial runs. Once again, the Indian openers Gautam Gambhir (19) and Virender Sehwag (11) made a cautious start putting on 32 runs for the opening wicket in 4.4 overs before disaster struck the side. In a sensational turnaround, India lost three wickets in four balls losing Gambhir, Karthik (0) and Sehwag to be reeling at 33 for three. Gambhir tried to go over the top off Pollock but was caught by Graeme Smith at mid-off in the fifth over. Karthik out first ball flicking Pollock straight to square leg. And then, in the every next over, Sehwag edged Ntini to Boucher. Robin Uthappa (15) began audaciously with a six and survived a dropped catch before Albie Morkel removed him. At 61 for four in the 11th over, Sharma and Dhoni joined forces to give the total some respectability. The pair kept the score board moving and punish the bad balls before turning on the heat in the last four overs that realised 52 runs. Morne Morkel went for 18 runs in the 17th over with Dhoni hitting him for a six over mid-wicket. The next over from van der Wath produced 12 runs with Sharma hitting his first six over mid-wicket. The pair struck some handy boundaries in the death before Sharma ended the innings in style pulling van der Wath for the maximum to complete his maiden half-century.

source: times of india