[pratyush6]

New Zealand Vs South Africa

What a game. Best so far in the World Cup and among the best that one would ever see.
Nothing wrong in losing a game like this. South Africa gave it their all and really no losers in this game.

Rain robbed SA, who were probably on course to set a huge score - probably in the region of 350+ which would have proved mighty difficult.

Was supporting NZ this game but felt bad for SA in the end. SA probably had more human errors under pressure - missed runouts, dropped catches which to me decided the game.

My question - was Steyn injured? And why play Philandrer?

In the end one could see the respect each team had for one another. Great game overall.

[Octane_Power]

I really feel sad that SA went out. During the entire course of the match I couldn't decide whom I was supporting but after the match somewhere I feel SA is a better team to play(for Aus or India, whoever it is) in the finals. They have the Steyn, Morkel, both maybe not in top form but come on, they are amongst the best bowlers in the world; then there is Du Plessis and De Villiers, I just love their line up!!!

It would have been really nice to see them in the finals(I feel more of this because it was quite touching to see Morkel and ABD cry :( ).

But on the other hand, the Kiwis have had an excellent stint at the WC. They haven't lost a single match and looking at how McCullum and company played I feel they are more deserving.

See.... Still I can't decide who was the better team or who was more deserving to be in the finals.

Its going to be a crazy fight between India and Australia..

-Bhargav

[1lokesh]

Originally Posted by msdivy

It was a close match. Choking is when they lose from winning position, when they commit silly mistakes, delay winning and finally end up losing. Here they didn't choke. Both teams dropped catches, missed runouts but NZ chased exceptionally well.

I would say yes they choked. Look at the number of silly mistakes they made towards the end of NZ innings. In one of those, the wicketkeeper couldn't collect a clean throw to the stumps and get a run-out. Then that instance of duminy crashing into that fielder who was in perfect catching position. (in both the instances it was Elliott on stake! - who happens to be now a very well deserved Man of the Match) De kock wasn't able to find stumps on three instances when it was sure to get them a run out. Too many mistakes SA made and the result us only fair to them due to these mistakes. That's where pressure gets in to choke.

Notwithstanding above, the game was a thriller and best one so far in CWC with only exception being AUS Vs NZ in league round.

[joe1980]

Originally Posted by navin

Yup ABD would have taken SA to 300+ without rain.

The same situation happened to SA 23 years ago with the 1992 World Cup Semi Finals against England! SA was given a target to win in 43 overs and this time around they set the target in 43 overs and in both the cases rain seems to be the culprit!

[Chetan_Rao]

The game was won/lost on merit, so it's a bit unfair to attribute it to external factors.

SA chose to bat first today knowing there's a chance of rain in the 1st innings, and then missed chances during NZ's chase. All part of a closely contested game, unlike the farce of 1992. No comparison really.

[carwatcher]

I have small points to mention. SA have again proved that they are also humans.
In 1999 WC the world's best fielder Herschelle Gibbs dropped Steve Waugh, World best bowler Donald froze in the SF and got run out. In 2011 WC the best sprinter between the wickets ABD got run out and now World's best fielder ABD missed a very easy run out and World's best bowler Steyn got hit around the park very badly.
I felt very very sad for SA but felt equally very very happy for NZ like many others.
There were few teams that did some improvement to their history. BD reached KOs for the first time, SA won KOs for the first time, NZ reached finals for the first time, so it's now India's turn to win consecutive WC for the first time ;-)

I have a feeling that while NZ will have to wait for many years before assimilating such a strong team, so it's their best chance to win while for SAs I can say that as they have broken the KO barrier, it's matter of time they win the WC.

Does anyone other than me also feels that the Cricinfo is Team-BHP of cricket websites.

[PPS]

Heard there was lots of rain today in Sydney, certainly not good news for us! It makes our spinners ineffective. But you never know with rain what eventually could happen. Its supposed to be cloudy on match day!

[Gannu_1]

Just caught up with the highlights. I think the turning point of the match was the dropped catch of Elliott when Duminy and Behardien converged. Behardien almost caught the ball when Duminy just crossed him and made him drop it! What an expensive miss it was!

Watch it - http://www.starsports.com/cricket/vi...ife/index.html

And 2 more - De Kock's missed stumping attempt and De Villiers' run out attempt both really cost them the win. The latter was a sheer goof up! He hit the stumps without the ball! I think they were really under a lot of pressure and ended up being nervous on the field.

Watch this - http://www.starsports.com/cricket/vi...ife/index.html

ABD was completely heartbroken at the post match press conference apparently:

Originally Posted by Cricbuzz

A question was posed to de Villiers on whether that was the worst he had felt on a cricket field. One word came out. "Yes." In that second, you felt he had snapped. He blinked, gulped, looked away momentarily.

http://www.cricbuzz.com/cricket-seri...s-broken-arrow

Man, I really feel bad for him! :(

[1lokesh]

Originally Posted by Gannu_1

Just caught up with the highlights. I think the turning point of the match was....

This image explains it all (found it on FB):

[PPS]

Originally Posted by Gannu_1

Just caught up with the highlights. I think the turning point of the match was the dropped catch of Elliott when Duminy and Behardien converged. Behardien almost caught the ball when Duminy just crossed him and made him drop it! What an expensive miss it was!

To add to the slip-ups in the field, the South African bowling has been below par in this World Cup! They were supposed to have one of the better bowling attacks but their 5th bowler was Duminy & AB Devilliers which is a huge risk on smaller grounds. The way Steyn was carted around by McCullum in the beginning & Elliot in the end he did not look like the no.1 bowler in the World. He kept bowling length balls! The way McCullum took on Steyn reminded me of Tendulkar taking on McGrath at Nairobi more than a decade back.
Eliott was supposed to be weak link in NZ batting but he played very well.

As Ravi Shastri would say, "at the end of the day, Cricket was the real winner"!

[carwatcher]

Elliott's dropped catch by Beherdein/Duminy goof up was not the turning point, it was the Knock-out punch as it came very late.
The real turning point was the missed run out chance by ABD as it was the easiest of chances and misses like that bring the morale down of the entire team. (Exactly same happened with that No ball in Ind-Ban match) Infact when such thing happens the self doubt creeps in, or that the luck is not on our side, or the almighty is not on our side today. So its very important for the Captain or Senior players to lift the morale of the team at that time. NZ was also jittery throughout the match and as they say whoever blinks first loses, the Elliott himself said that he didn't know where the ball went, so its swing and miss. When 5 runs were required of 2 balls, I personally wanted SA to either lose clearly rather than go out after a tied match as that would have been catastrophical for them.
As I mentioned in my previous posts, it was a cruel match.

The silver lining for SA is that as they have breached the KO barrier, they surely win the WC very soon. Yes, they can do it.

[drsingh]

My favourite bit was Daniel Vettori hitting Dale Steyn's short ball for a four in the last over. I've been watching Vettori since I was a kid. He's still very relevant after all these years

[joslicx]

Originally Posted by PPS

As Ravi Shastri would say, "at the end of the day, Cricket was the real winner"!

And he would say the same for the Ind-Aus game which means final is going to be played between Cricket and Cricket

Originally Posted by carwatcher

The real turning point was the missed run out chance by ABD as it was the easiest of chances and misses like that bring the morale down of the entire team.

I concur. The missed run out was horrible from SA point of view, and it was AVB who missed that, JRV2.0 of cricket! It was just not SA's day.

And people saying SA could have scored 350+ if not for rains, well they could also have lost wickets (not unlikely now in cricket) and maybe had folded for around 300. Who knows... NZ had a stiff target (almost 300 runs and 6.5+ asking rate) and it wasnt so easy. In the end, probably the best semifinal of all time..

The silver lining for SA is that as they have breached the KO barrier, they surely win the WC very soon. Yes, they can do it.

Well, WC is only every 4 years. By next WC they'll lose the likes of Steyn, AVB, Amla, Tahir etc as all are in 30s. They'll need massive rebuilding as new fast bowlers are not a patch on the likes of Steyn & Donald and its very difficult to replace batsmen like AVB and Amla. This was their best chance really and they fluffed it.

[Santoshbhat]

World cup semi final horrors just don't seem to end for SA! The pressure of the big match got to them. Fielding errors is the last thing you expect from the SA team. And in a close match those errors cost them the game. Feel sorry for them, but as a team they looked nervous on the field. Having guys who have played and won big matches and finals in the team makes a big difference on days like these. Even their support staff/ coaches have been through world cup 'knockout disasters' in the past. That's the difference with teams like India/Aus/ SL. Barring PAK in '92, these three teams have had a grip on the trophy since 1983!

Coming to the Ind - Aus semifinal, barring Mitchell Starc, Aussie bowling attack does not have teeth. Jhonson is not at his best and Watson and Faulkner are 'containing' bowlers. If India can see off Starc's opening burst with just one down, they should be good for 300+ (batting first). Toss will be tricky though with a bit of rain around. Dhoni should not hesitate to bowl first if the conditions justify it.

[flycatcher]

No one talking about rain interruption and SA in knock outs? IMO if it hadn't rained SA were well on course for a 350+ score. That would have been very very difficult for NZ to chase down.

All said, hoping for a IND-NZ final :-)