Sitting Ducks

Maverick fast bowler Makhaya Ntini claimed 5 for 21 in a devastating displayof seam bowling as South Africa steamrolled Pakistan by 124 runs to move to thesemi-finals of the Champions Trophy today.

The 29-year-old speed gun whipped the cream off the Pakistani top orderbefore Charl Langeveldt (3 for 20) and veteran Shaun Pollock (2 for 20) joinedin the party to restrict Pakistan to a lowly 89 in 25 overs in what turned outto be a one-sided clash at the PCA Stadium.

Credit for the comprehensive South African victory should also go to MarkBoucher (69) and Justine Kemp (64) who put on 131 runs off 187 balls for thesixth wicket to lift their team from a precarious 42-5 and post a competitive213 for 8 on a track which had a lot of carry and bounce.

The win helped South Africa finish on four points from their three games andbecome the second team from Group B after New Zealand to make it to the lastfour of the elite tournament.

South Africa, in fact, topped the group on net run rate and would now playthe second semi-final at Jaipur on Nov 2 while New Zealand will play the firstsemi-final here a day before.

Their opponents would be decided after the last Group A league match betweenIndia and Australia here on Sunday, with West Indies having confirmed theirberth from that group.

Pakistan, who were skittled out for their lowest total against the Proteas,were chucked out of the championship afer finishing wih two defeats from threematches.

Pakistani batsmen showed neither the application nor the desire to resurrecttheir innings as eight of them were dismissed on single digit scores.Ironically, tailender Yasir Arafat was their top scorer with 27 and extras werethe second highest contributor to the total at 16.

Pakistan were off to a nightmarish start, losing opener Mohammad Hafeez tothe second ball of the first over by Ntini who also got rid of a strugglingImran Farhat (4) in his very next over to give South Africa importantbreakthroughs.

Farhat was caught by Shaun Pollock, the all-rounder taking the 100th catch ofhis career. He also became only the sixth player in ODIs to complete the uniquerecord of scoring 1000 runs while taking 100 wickets and 100 catches.

Reduced to 2 for 9, Pakistan found themselves on the same boat as SouthAfricans and in fact in a worse scenario when they lost three more wickets inthe space of 13 runs.

Pollock sent back Mohammad Yousuf (5) with a peach of a ball that swung insharply after hitting the deck hard to uproot the batsman's off stump inspectacular fashion.

Then Ntini, breathing fire on a lively track, removed skipper Younis Khan,who failed in his third match on the trot, and the in-form Shoaib Malik off thesecond and fourth balls of the 8th over to have Pakistan in a real spot ofbother at 21 for 5.

Younis (7) tried to play an ambitious pull shot but was caught by Langveldtat mid on while Malik (0) poked at a ball going down the leg side which wascaught by Boucher who dived to his left to take the blinder.

The ordeal was not yet over for Pakistan as they lost wicketkeeper batsmanKamran Akmal, also to Ntini, when he was trapped leg before, the scoreboardreading a sorry 27 for 6 in the 10th over.

It was left to flamboyant Shahid Afridi to repair the damage and theall-rounder did try to break the shackles by hitting a six and a four off Ntinito relieve some of the mounting pressure.

However, Afridi (14 off 8 balls) was a trifle unlucky to be adjudged legbefore off Pollock by umpire Mark Benson as replays suggested that the ballmight have missed leg stump.

Abdul Razzaq also failed to conjure any magic, being clean bowled by asharply seaming delivery by Langveldt in his very first over for 5.

Earlier, Pakistan's speedsters did a commendable job in giving their teamearly breakthroughs on a helpful track although they did lose the plot a bit inthe middle overs to allow the South Africans to score a fighting total in theend.

South Africa's decision to bat first on the lively track appeared to backfirebadly when they lost two wickets in two balls right in the very first over.

It was a fiery spell from speedster Umar Gul (3-36) which saw captain GraemeSmith and Herschelle Gibbs return to the pavilion without making a run.

Smith tried to play a defensive shot on the back foot but only ended up beingtrapped plumb in front while the off-colour Gibbs poked at an away goingdelivery to give Shoaib a catch in the slips.

Boeta Dippenaar and Jacques Kallis were both guilty of attempting to play theball away from the off stump off Rao Iftikhar Anjum (2-26) and handing the catchto Akmal, the wicketkeeper having a busy day at office.

South Africa lost another wicket, that of AB de Villiers, to be reduced to 42for 5 in the 13th over.

With the fast bowlers getting lot of help from the wicket early on, thebatsmen needed to see through the initial overs as the pitch eased down as thegame progressed.

This was evident in the way Boucher and Justine Kemp negotiated the bowlersin the middle overs and Younis Khan let Anjum complete his quota of 10 overs bythe 35th over.

Boucher was the more enterprising of the two, the veteranwicketkeeper-batsman reaching his 20th ODI 50 off 73 balls and with the help ofsix fours.

Kemp also did an admirable job of mending the tattered innings and in theprocess reached his 50 off 94 balls with the help of four fours and a six.

But just when things appeared to have come back on track, Razzaq temptedBoucher to go for a big one in the 44th over but the ball took the top edge ofthe bat and ballooned to point fielder Hafeez who also succeeded in sending backPollock cheaply for two just two overs later.

Kemp, who faced 110 balls and hit four fours and two sixes, was dismissed byGul in the final over while trying to go for a big one.

PTI