South Africa Rained Out Of The World Cup

South Africa were 229 for five after 45 overs in reply to Sri Lanka's 268 for nine, when play had to be called off dueto heavy downpour and, under the Duckworth-Lewis system, it resulted in a tied score.

That brought South Africa's unimpressive campaign in the tournament to a despairing end, the hosts finishing with only14 points after six matches, behind Sri Lanka who are at the top of Group B with 18 points, and New Zealand and Kenya whohave 16 points each. Kenya have a match to go against West Indies on March 4.

The shocking exit of South Africa, who started the tournament as the second favourites behind Australia, bore astriking but cruel resemblance to their ouster from the previous World Cup in England in 1999 when their semi-finalagainst Australia had also ended in a tie and Australia had progressed on the basis of better record in the earlierrounds.

If South Africa had scored one more run or lost one wicket less, they would have won the game and progressed tothe Super Six. A shattered South African captain Shaun Pollock later revealed that his team knew that 229 was actually the winningtarget and had accordingly informed the batsman on the crease, Mark Boucher, who remained unbeaten on 45.

Boucher struck a six off the fifth ball of the 45th over to take the score to 229 but played out the next ball without any run,satisfied that the target had been achieved if play had to be stopped at that point.

However, it proved to be yet another heart-breaking end for South Africa who had been done in by rains in the 1992World Cup too when, under the then existing rain-rules, they were left needing to score an impossible 22 runs from one ballagainst England in the semi-finals.

South Africa were given a solid start by their openers Herschelle Gibbs, who top-scored with 73, and Graeme Smith.The two put on 65 runs in the first 11 overs before the introduction of spinners halted South Africa's progress.de Silva dismissedSmith with his very first ball, the batsman pulling into the hands of Pulasthi Gunaratne at deep mid-wicket after making 35 off34 balls with five fours. 

de Silva struck again with his gentle off-spinners, bowling Gary Kirsten around his legs for eight. Sri Lankan captain SanathJayasuriya then got into the act, disturbing the stumps of Jacques Kallis who could score only 16 runs.

But the biggest blow to South Africa came in the 29th over when Muttiah Muralitharan dismissed Gibbs who had strucktwo sixes and seven fours in his 88-ball knock. Gibbs went too far across the off-stump, exposing his leg-stump which was hitby the Muralitharan delivery.

Boeta Dippenaar (8) got out on the very next ball at the other end, leaving South Africa dangerously placed at 149 forfive in the 30th over. Boucher and Pollock revived South Africa's hopes with a 63-run partnership for the sixth wicket beforePollock was narrowly run out for 25. 

It had started raining just when Pollock got out at South African total of 212 in the 43rd over. But play continued forsome more time before being called off after the end of the 45th over. Sri Lanka had earlier threatened to boycott this matchafter their appeal to review the run-rate rule was rejected by the International Cricket Council.

Sri Lanka would have been in danger of bowing out of competition had it lost to South Africa as the net run ratewould have decided who between Sri Lanka and New Zealand qualified for the Super Six stage.

The Sri Lankans wanted ICC to take into account New Zealand's forfeit of four points to Kenya while deciding theirrun-rate, an argument that was rejected by ICC. However, last night's result left no scope for net run-rate to play any part in decidingwhich team progressed to the next round.

New Zealand benefitted immensely from the result as South Africa's victory would have certainly meant their eliminationsince Sri Lanka had a better run-rate. 

Sri Lanka had earlier scored 268 for nine from their 50 overs and South Africa had reached 229 for six in 45 overs whensudden torrential rain halted play. When the players went off, Mark Boucher was batting on 45 and Lance Klusener on one.

Earlier, Marvan Atapattu struck a brilliant century to power Sri Lanka to a challenging 268 for nine leaving SouthAfrica with a difficult task under lights to qualify for the Super Six. Atapattu struck a solid 124 and put on 152 runs for thefourth wicket with veteran Aravinda de Silva before Sri Lanka slipped a bit in the final overs losing a number of wicketsthat halted their progress.

Except these two batsmen, none of the other Sri Lankans contributed anything substantial to the score after captainSanath Jayasuriya had won the toss and elected to bat first.

Both the teams were in a must-win situation to qualify for the next round though Sri Lanka could have sneaked in even in the eventof a loss provided they had a better net run rate than New Zealand who defeated Canada by five wickets with 27 overs tospare in another Group B match at Benoni. But rain and the vagaries of the Duckworth-Lewis system finally leftthe two teams tied.

Sri Lanka did not have an impressive start as Jayasuriya struggled to score. The flamboyant left-hander made only 16runs from 30 balls before being run out in the ninth over at the total of 37. Hashan Tillakaratne and Mahela Jayawardene were also
dismissed cheply. However, Atapattu played an unusually attacking knock today and dominated right from the start.

He got good support from de Silva, playing his last World Cup, and the two milked the South African bowlers during themiddle overs. Atapattu, who smashed 18 boundaries in his 129-ball knock, was particulary impressive as he took uponhimself the responsibility of ensuring a handsome score for his team.

De Silva also batted magnificently, hitting six fours and two sixes in his 78-ball 73. The two brought the score to 242 in the 45th over beforeboth got out in quick succession and Sri Lankan innings lost its way. Atapattu was caught at the long-on by substituteRobin Peterson off Andrew Hall and de Silva fell in the next over, caught by Graeme Smith off Makhaya Ntini. Russel Arnold (8), Kumara Sangakkara (6), Chaminda Vaas(3) and Muthiah Muralitharan (4) also got out without much
contribution as Sri Lanka could add just 26 runs to their total in the last five overs.