ICC Champions Trophy: South Africa into semis

SOUTH Africa scraped into the semi-finals of the Champions Trophy as a dramatic finish saw their Group B clash with West Indies end in a tie under the Duckworth-Lewis method.

After rain had reduced the game to 31 overs a side in Cardiff, a fine 73 off 63 balls from Colin Ingram and scores of 38 from David Miller and 37 from captain AB de Villiers helped the Proteas post 230 for six.

Some power hitting from Marlon Samuels (48) and Kieron Pollard (28) had put West Indies on course to pull off the run chase. But, when Pollard was dismissed from the last ball before rain stopped play with 29 deliveries remaining, the Windies went from being ahead of the required score to level on 190 for six. Both sides get a point for the tie, but it is the Proteas who go through due to a better net run-rate.

Chris Gayle was soon on the offensive, swatting Dale Steyn’s first ball of this tournament to the boundary, before repeating the dose to Lonwabo Tsotsobe.

Chris Morris got the wicket of Gayle (36), but Samuels warmed to the task and produced a stunning scoring run of 31 from nine deliveries to bring West Indies into contention and Pollard and Dwayne Bravo carried on as the tension escalated, until the game reached its dramatic denouement with West Indies four runs ahead of the par Duckworth-Lewis score.

Pollard lofted the first ball of Ryan McLaren’s over to Steyn and that put the teams level when the rain came once more.