Tuesday, April 17, 2007 

South Africa beat England by 9 wickets in the Super 8 phase of the World Cup at the Kensington Oval, Bridgetown, Barbados. This confirms South Africa's place in one of the four Semi-Final places in the tournament, and eliminates both England and hosts West Indies.

After losing both opening batsmen in quick succession, with Pietersen falling soon after, England were looking to rebuild steadily with Strauss and Collingwood at the crease. After hitting their 50-partnership in 80 balls, both men fell one after another inside 2 overs.

Flintoff was quickly dispatched by a reverse-swinging delivery from Andrew Hall that went in between bat and body to take out the top of middle-stump. Two overs later and Nixon fell for 1 on the last ball of the 36th over, followed by Mahmood being bowled on the first delivery of Hall's next over leaving him on a hat-trick, which he narrowly missed achieving after a wild swing by Monty Panesar just missed the ball, but went on to fly in to wicket-keeper Boucher's hands.

Boucher caught Panesar off of the bowling of Nel following a poor shot, and Hall went on to bowl Anderson out to get his first ODI five-wicket haul (taking the wickets of Collingwood, Flintoff, Nixon, Mahmood and Anderson), the third of the competition (after fellow South Africans Charl Langeveldt's against Sri Lanka and Andre Nel's against Bangladesh), to finish with figures of 5-18 (10) - the best by a South African in a World Cup, beating Lance Klusener's 5-21 against Kenya in 1999. Andrew Strauss top scored for England with 46 and Bopara added precious runs at the tail end of England's innings with 27*, in a similar fashion to his 52 against Sri Lanka.

South Africa started batting in emphatic fashion: reaching 50 in just 5.4 overs: in contrast, England had taken 15.1 overs to reach 50; and while de Villiers was lucky not to be out on just 21 after being caught behind by Nixon off of the bowling of Anderson, (it was an edge so faint that the umpire, Steve Bucknor, couldn't hear it and couldn't give it), South Africa kept the foot on the gas and even after losing de Villiers on 42 they kept the run rate around 8, resulting in Smith getting 50 off of just 34 deliveries with only 9 dot balls, finishing on 85*. Kallis got to 17*, including getting his 9000th ODI run - a feat only 10 players have achieved.

Toss: England won, and elected to bat first.

England innings
Player	Status	Runs	Balls	4s	6s	Strike rate
Ian Bell	c Prince b Langeveldt	7	23	1	0	30.43
Michael Vaughan	lbw b Nel	17	38	3	0	44.73
Andrew Strauss	c Smith b Kallis	46	67	2	1	68.65
Kevin Pietersen	c Smith b Nel	3	15	0	0	20.00
Paul Collingwood	lbw b Hall	30	57	3	0	52.63
Andrew Flintoff	b Hall	5	10	0	0	50.00
Ravinder Bopara	not out	27	44	4	0	61.36
Paul Nixon	c Boucher b Hall	1	2	0	0	50.00
Sajid Mahmood	b Hall	0	1	0	0	0.00
Monty Panesar	c Boucher b Nel	2	28	0	0	7.14
James Anderson	lbw b Hall	0	6	0	0	0.00
Extras	(b 4; lb 4; w 5; nb 3)	16
Total	(all out; 48 overs)	154		13	1

Fall of wickets: 1-9 (Bell, 7.3 ov), 2-37 (Vaughan, 12.2 ov), 3-53 (Pietersen, 16.2 ov), 4-111 (Strauss, 32.4 ov), 5-115 (Collingwood, 33.5 ov), 6-119 (Flintoff, 35.1 ov), 7-121 (Nixon, 36.0 ov), 8-121 (Mahmood, 37.1 ov), 9-144 (Panesar, 44.3 ov), 10-154 (Anderson, 48.0 ov)

South Africa bowling
Bowler	Overs	Maidens	Runs	Wickets	Econ
Shaun Pollock	10	2	17	0	1.70
Charl Langeveldt	7	1	38	1	5.42
Andre Nel	10	3	35	3	3.50
Andrew Hall	10	2	18	5	1.80
Jacques Kallis	8	0	22	1	2.75
Justin Kemp	3	0	16	0	5.33

South Africa innings (Target: 155 runs from 50 overs)
Player	Status	Runs	Balls	4s	6s	Strike rate
Graeme Smith	not out	89	58	13	0	153.44
Abraham de Villiers	c Nixon b Flintoff	42	35	8	0	120.00
Jacques Kallis	not out	17	25	2	0	68.00
Extras	(b 4; w 3; nb 2)	9
Total	(1 Wickets; 19.2 overs)	157		23	0

Fall of wickets: 1-85 (de Villiers, 9.5 ov)

Did not bat: Herschelle Gibbs, Ashwell Prince, Mark Boucher, Justin Kemp, Shaun Pollock, Andrew Hall, Andre Nel, Charl Langeveldt

England bowling
Bowler	Overs	Maidens	Runs	Wickets	Econ
James Anderson	5	0	32	0	6.40
Sajid Mahmood	4.2	0	49	0	11.30
Andrew Flintoff	6	0	36	1	6.00
Monty Panesar	2	0	24	0	12.00
Paul Collingwood	2	0	12	0	6.00

England: I R Bell, M P Vaughan (capt), A J Strauss, K P Pietersen, P D Collingwood, A Flintoff, R S Bopara, P A Nixon (wkt), S I Mahmood, J M Anderson, M S Panesar
South Africa: G C Smith (capt), A B de Villiers, J D Kallis, H H Gibbs, A G Prince, M V Boucher (wkt), J M Kemp, S M Pollock, A J Hall, A Nel, C K Langeveldt

Player of the match: A J Hall (South Africa)

Umpires: S A Bucknor (West Indies) and S J A Taufel (Australia)
TV umpire: B F Bowden (New Zealand)
Match referee: R S Madugalle (Sri Lanka)
Reserve umpire: R E Koertzen (South Africa)

• "44th Match, Super Eights: England v South Africa at Bridgetown, Apr 17, 2007" — Cricinfo, April 17, 2007
• "Records - World Cup - South Africa - Best bowling figures in an innings" — Cricinfo, April 17, 2007