Wellington, Mar 12:
Skipper AB de Villiers led from the front with an all-round show to help South Africa thrash minnows UAE by 146 runs and put the team’s cricket World Cup campaign back on track in its final pool B ODI encounter, here today.
De Villiers struck a blazing 99 and then picked up 2 wickets with his medium pace to steer Proteas, who were coming off a shock loss to Pakistan in their previous match. The South Africans are now second in the pool led by India, who still have a match to play against Zimbabwe.
However, the final standings will only be known after the Pakistan-Ireland and West Indies-UAE clashes on Sunday.
Striking his second fifty of the tournament, de Villiers jumped to the second spot in the run-scorers list, behind Kumar Sangakkara, as South Africa amassed 341 for six in their stipulated 50 overs after being put into bat first.
Coming in at number seven, batsman Farhaan Behardien (64 not out) also played a crucial knock and stitched up an unbeaten 49-run seventh-wicket partnership with Vernon Philander (10 not out) to give Proteas the necessary fillip in the end overs.
The South African bowlers were also clinical in their showing as Morne Morkel, Vernon Philander and de Villiers shared two wickets apiece to bundle out UAE for 195 in 47.3 overs. UAE’s No.11 Fahad Alhashmi was unable to come out on the field due to injury.
UAE were never in the chase as they lost wickets at regular intervals with wicketkeeper-batsman Swapnil Patil (57 not out) and Shaiman Anwar (39) providing the only bit of resistance in an otherwise lackluster showing. (PTI)
SCOREBOARD
South Africa
Hashim Amla c Ali b Naveed 12
Quinton de Kock c Haider b Javed 26
Rilee Rossouw c & b Tauquir 43
AB de Villiers c Javed b Shazad 99
David Miller b Naveed 49
JP Duminy lbw b Naveed 23
Farhaan Behardien not out 64
Vernon Philander not out 10
Extras (B-4, LB-1, W-5, NB-5) 15
Total (six wickets; 50 overs) 341
Bowling: Naveed 10-0-63-3; Shazad 8-0-59-1; Javed 10-0-87-1; Tauqir 10-0-47-1; Al Hashmi 7.2-0-45-0; Khan 4-0-31-0; Anwar 0.4-0-4-0.
United Arab Emirates innings
(target: 342 runs from 50 overs)
Amjad Ali c Behardien b Duminy 21
Andi Berenger c Rossouw b Morkel 5
Khurram Khan c de Kock b Morkel 12
Shaiman Anwar c Rossouw b Imran Tahir 39
Swapnil Patil† not out 57
Saqlain Haider c Rossouw b de Villiers 7
Amjad Javed c sub (WD Parnell) b de Villiers 5
Mohammad Naveed c de Villiers b Philander 17
Mohammad Tauqir* b Steyn 3
Kamran Shazad c Steyn b Philander 0
Fahad Alhashmi absent hurt
Extras (b 4, lb 16, w 6, nb 3) 29
Total (all out; 47.3 overs) 195 (4.10 runs per over)
Bowling: Dale Steyn 9-1-40-1, Vernon Philander 8.3-1- 34-2, Morne Morkel 10-2-23-2, Jean-Paul Duminy 3-1-12-1, Farhaan Behardien 4-1-11-0, Imran Tahir 10-0-40-1, AB de Villiers 3-0-15-2.
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