THE OVAL (West Indies won toss): West Indies (2pts) beat South Africa by five wickets
THE West Indies were almost unrecognisable from the undisciplined bunch who were whitewashed by England in the Test series this summer as they eased past South Africa with seven balls to spare to reach the semi-finals of the Champions Trophy and a meeting with Pakistan at the Rose Bowl on Wednesday.
Two attempted yorkers from Shaun Pollock that turned into low full tosses and two perfectly struck sixes over midwicket by Ricardo Powell settled the issue in the 47th over but it was the hard work earlier that earned the West Indies their victory.
They did well to contain South Africa to 246 for six after Herschelle Gibbs had ended his run of poor form with his thirteenth one-day international century on Saturday and, after rain had halted their reply at 20 without loss, they did even better to recover from the loss of two early wickets yesterday.
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Chris Gayle and Wavell Hinds fell to successive balls from Pollock but Ramnaresh Sarwan, who needed 38 balls to get into double-figures, and Brian Lara did not worry about the run-rate as they compiled 98 in 25 overs.
They still needed 116 off 17 overs when Lara was bowled by Nicky Boje for 49 but Sarwan, later named man of the match for his 75, and Shivnarine Chanderpaul, with an unbeaten 51 off 52 balls, put on 83 in 13 overs before Powell struck the decisive blows.
South Africa have now lost 11 of their last 12 internationals and Graeme Smith, their captain, said: “We have to think about where we go from here.”