SA vs Aus: Australia beat South Africa by 8 wickets

COLOMBO: Shane Watson's unbelievable run in the ICC World Twenty20 continued as he virtually assured Australia a place in the semifinals of the event with a comfortable eight-wicket win over South Africa in the their second Super Eights match on Sunday. 

Chasing a modest target of 147, Watson once again showed his all-round prowess with a smashing 70 off 47 balls after taking two important wickets as Australia reached the target with 14 balls to spare.

His innings included eight boundaries and two sixes off left-arm spinner Robin Peterson and that fetched him his fourth consecutive man-of-the-match award.

Watson has so far scored 234 runs in four matches at an astonishing average of 78, not to forget the 10 wickets that he has taken.

Watson's 99-run second wicket partnership with the ever-dependable Mike Hussey (45 not out) laid the foundation of the Australian chase.

When Watson finally got out at the team score on 109, the victory was just round the corner.

After Morne Morkel and Dale Steyn had kept the Australians quiet for the first five overs, the counter-attack started in the sixth with Watson hitting Morkel for three boundaries. The first boundary was hit through point, the second through covers and the third one through the short fine leg.

With 15 runs coming from that over, the Australian innings finally got the momentum it required.

There was no stopping Watson after that as he played shots all round the wicket. When Peterson dropped it short, he rocked back to pull it over deep mid-wicket. When Parnel bowled it short, he pulled over square leg for a six which also brought up his third half century in the tournament.

Earlier, leg-spinner Xavier Doherty sparkled with figures of three for 20 to help Australia restrict South Africa to a modest 146 for five.

Australian skipper George Bailey's decision to play Doherty ahead of Dan Christian on a slowish track turned out to be a masterstroke.

Handed the new ball along with left-arm pacer Mitchell Starc, Doherty responded to his captain's call and picked up the crucial wickets of Richard Levi, Jacques Kallis and JP Duminy to put Australia in the driver's seat after Bailey won the toss and elected to field.

Doherty was ably supported by in-form Shane Watson, who finished with figures of two for 29, which included the important wickets of Hashim Amla (17) and South Africa skipper A B de Villiers (21).

Robin Peterson top-scored for South Africa with a quick-fire 32 off 19 balls, while Farhaan Behardien (31) and JP Dunimy (30) also made useful contributions for the Proteas.

Opting to bat, South Africa lost wickets at regular intervals to make life difficult for themselves.

South Africa witnessed a terrible start to their innings as Doherty cleaned up Levi in the third ball of the innings.

Australia picked up two more quick wickets in the form of Kallis and Amla as South Africa slumped to 33 for three in 5.5 overs.

While Kallis nicked a Doherty delivery to Mathew Wade behind the stumps, Amla was caught by Wade off the bowling of Watson.

Duminy and de Villiers then added 31 runs for the fourth wicket before the former was stumped by Wade off Doherty in the 11th over.

With pressure building on him to score quickly, De Villiers perished, caught by Bailey off Watson.

But thanks to a vital unbeaten 60-run sixth-wicket stand between Behardien and Peterson which came off just 35 balls, South Africa managed to inch closer to 150.

While Behardien hit two fours and a six during his 27-ball innings, Peterson's 32 came off just 19 balls with the help of six boundaries.

World T20: India stay alive with big win over Pakistan

Colombo: India needed a win to keep their chances of making their first ICC World Twenty20 semi-finals since the inaugural edition in 2007, and after the hammering at the hands of Australia bounced back brilliantly with a nine-wicket win over Pakistan on Sunday. After their five-bowler plan flopped miserably on Friday, India reverted to Virender Sehwag and L Balaji and both played parts in victory over Pakistan, who now need to beat Australia on October 2 to progress past the Super Eights. 

Pakistan’s brittle batting has been overshadowed by some brilliant bowling for long, but against their old foes India – who have yet to lose to Pakistan in ICC tournaments dating back to 1992 – they contrived to be bowled out for 128, their lowest total in tournament history. As in the last game against South Africa, Pakistan’s batting was poor but the difference this time was that there was no batsman to stick around, or anyone to inject crucial runs down the order. Their cause was not helped by a slew of dropped catches, three of which were off India’s anchorman Virat Kohli whose unbeaten 78 closed the deal with 18 balls remaining.

A 13-run opening over from Zaheer Khan hinted that Pakistan were going to bolt out of the blocks, but India struck back with five wickets inside the first ten overs. Irfan Pathan removed Imran Nazir for 8 with his second ball and Shahid Afridi, promoted to No. 3, pulled L Balaji out to deep square leg after also getting a rousing start.

It was the lack of pace that really worked for India, however. Yuvraj Singh struck in his first two overs, getting Nasir Jamshed and Kamran Akmal caught behind as Pakistan slumped to 49 for 4 in the ninth over. Their captain, Mohammad Hafeez, appeared ready to play out the innings until a silly shot against Kohli saw him bowled for 15 off 28 balls.

Umar Akmal and Shoaib Malik averted a crisis from 59 for 5 with a 47-run stand in 33 balls punctuated by deft cutting and tucking off the pads, but crucially R Ashwin extracted the pair before they could cut loose. With five overs to go, however, Malik spooned a catch to Rohit Sharma for a brisk 28 and in Ashwin’s next over, the 18th of the innings, Umar Akmal heaved out to Suresh Raina in the deep for 21.

A fine throw from Yuvraj at backward point did for Yasir Arafat, and Pakistan’s innings ended with a whimper as Balaji plucked out Umar Gul and Saeed Ajmal in consecutive deliveries – Dhoni taking the catches to finish with four dismissals. Pakistan scored just 23 runs from their last 28 ball, losing five wickets in the process.

India’s reply began with a jolt when Gautam Gambhir chipped a return catch to the 20-year-old left-arm spinner Raza Hasan, and India managed just 11 runs from three overs. Sehwag got the chase purring with two boundaries off Gul, followed by a glance off Hasan. Without any risks, India took 36 for 1 off the Powerplays.

The introduction of Afridi brought the aggression out of Kohli, who hit the former Pakistan captain for a six in his first over but also edged a four past Kamran on 27. In the same over, Sehwag chipped a high return catch to Afridi that was grassed. In the next, Kohli was dropped at backward point by a diving Umar. Pakistan’s ground fielding was poor as well, with overthrows and slides in vain adding to the Kohli-Sehwag partnership of 69.

By the time Pakistan held on to something – Gul catching a lofted Sehwag drive just inside the long-off boundary off Afridi – India were beyond the point of jitters. Kohli and Yuvraj finished the chase with ease, thanks to a 54-run stand in 6.3 overs.

Brief scores: India 129 for 1 in 17 overs (Virat Kohli 78*, Virender Sehwag 29) beat Pakistan 128 in 19.4 overs (Shoaib Malik 28; L Balaji 3/22, R Ashwin 2/16, Yuvraj Singh 2/16) by nine wickets.