South Africa into semis after Windies tie
CARDIFF: South Africa scraped their way into the semi-finals of the Champions Trophy on superior net run-rate after their rain-marred match against the West Indies in Cardiff on Friday ended in a remarkable tie.
The West Indies, who had to win this match to go through to the last four, were exactly level on the Duckworth/Lewis system for rain-affected matches at 190 for six off 26.1 overs.
But Australian umpires Rod Tucker and Steve Davis then decided the rain was too heavy to continue and took the players off the field for the final time at 7.43pm local time (1843 GMT).
Crucially, off what turned out to be the last ball of the match, with West Indies then ahead of their D/L target, Kieron Pollard was caught for 28 by Dale Steyn at third man off Ryan McLaren and his exit swung the match back to parity.
The Proteas joined already-qualified India as one of the two semi-finalists from Group B.
For South Africa, often dubbed 'chokers' -- a charge levelled at them by West Indies captain Dwayne Bravo on Thursday -- there was belated satisfaction Friday in coming out on the right side of a result like this.
At the 1992 World Cup semi-final against England in Sydney, South Africa were left with the impossible task of scoring 21 off one ball under the old rain rule system when play resumed after bad weather.
It was the first of several extraordinary exits from major tournaments and prompted the advent of the D/L system.
Their 1999 World Cup semi-final tie with Australia at Edgbaston, saw South Africa go out following a pool loss to the Aussies.
Former Proteas paceman Allan Donald, in Cardiff on Friday as South Africa's bowling coach, played in both of those heartbreaking matches.
And in 2003 he was an injured member of the squad when World Cup hosts South Africa bowed out after a failure to correctly interpret the D/L sheet saw them tie with Sri Lanka, rather than win, in Durban.
"We have been on the losing side of things like this," said South Africa captain AB de Villiers.
"I feel bad for West Indies, this is part of the game. It was in the back of my mind.
"It was difficult. The ball was getting wet. We needed to be calm, and we were," the wicketkeeper-batsman added.
"I'm just glad Dale held on to that catch at the end," he said after South Africa narrowly avoided a fourth exit from a major event at the hands of the West Indies.
Meanwhile, Bravo refused to criticise the officials.
"We were hoping we could get back to the field," said the all-rounder.
"The umpires have a job to do, they did it to the best of their ability.
"The way we played we deserved to finish with a better result, but it is out of our control."
South Africa opener Colin Ingram was named man-of-the-match for his quickfire 73 out of 230 for six in a rain-reduced 31 overs.
Dynamic West Indies opener Chris Gayle fell for 36 when Chris Morris seamed one away to have him caught at point.
Marlon Samuels smashed a six and two fours off three successive McLaren deliveries before handing out similar treatment to Robin Peterson.
But having just pulled Steyn, playing his first match of the tournament following a side strain, for four, next ball the speedster out-thought him by knocking out his middle stump with a full length delivery.
Samuels' 48 took just 38 balls.
The West Indies, the World Twenty20 champions scored 72 runs off seven overs before Pollard fell.
And that, combined with the rain, sealed their fate.
