THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 2015

SYDNEY: ’s (centre) celebrates with his teammates after taking the of ’s (right) during their World Cup quarterfinal match. —AP South Africa storm into semis

SYDNEY: South Africa stormed into the World of 130 was not much. There were no demons on neighbours just three times in 28 meetings. Cup semi-finals yesterday with a nine-wicket this track. But we didn’t bat well. Maybe it was “Tomorrow will be a high-scoring match on a flat rout of Sri Lanka which brought the curtain nerves, we didn’t go for our shots and it’s easily pitch. We have to bowl well,” said skipper down on the ODI careers of our worst performance we have done in the Mushrafe Mortaza. and . Off-spinner JP World Cup and it happened to be in the quarter- Friday sees four-time champions Duminy (3-29) took a hat-trick and leg-spinner final,” he said. Duminy said he was shocked to face 1992 winners who suffered a major claimed 4-26 as South Africa, who have become the first South African to take a setback Tuesday when giant fast bowler had never before won a World Cup knockout World Cup hat-trick. Mohammad Irfan was ruled out of the rest of the match, set up a clash against either “I’ve never got close to a hat-trick so I’m pret- World Cup with a stress fracture of the pelvis. or West Indies for a place in the March 29 final. ty pleased with that performance. It was mainly Australia have called in former World Cup win- Chasing just 134 to win, the Proteas reached about keeping the runs down,” said Duminy, ning skipper to give pep talks to their target in the 18th over with opener who dismissed Mathews and then, at the start of the squad. making an undefeated 78. his next over, got rid of Kulasekara and Tharindu “It was good to sit down over dinner with him Sangakkara, in his last one-day international Kaushal lbw for a golden on his one-day and just chat about cricket and World Cups,” appearance, top-scored for Sri Lanka with 45 as debut. opening batsman Aaron Finch revealed. his record-breaking of four successive ODI After and Dale Steyn sent back “He’s obviously captained a winning one and hundreds came to an end. Together with Lahiru openers and Tillakaratne Dilshan, it played in another one as well. There are not Thirimanne (41) he put on 65 for the third wick- was the turn of Pakistan-born spinner Tahir to many better-credentialed players to talk to et. Fellow veteran Jayawardene, who now quits strike, dismissing Thirimanne and Jayawardene. about it.” The winner of that Adelaide match will all international cricket, made only four before Man-of-the-match Tahir also got rid of Thisara face either or for a place in the he became one of Tahir’s victims as 1996 cham- Perera (0) before wrapping up proceedings with final. The West Indies are sweating on the fitness pions Sri Lanka lost their last six for just the wicket of . of star opener who has been laid low SCOREBOARD 19 runs. Meanwhile, the build-up continues to the by a back injury ahead of their quarter-final South Africa skipper AB de Villiers, who lost other quarter-finals. Bangladesh insist they will against New Zealand in Wellington on Saturday. SYDNEY: Scoreboard in the World Cup quarter-final between South Africa and Sri Lanka at the Sydney the toss, said he feels his team can now go on have nothing to fear from defending champions Former Darren Sammy turned to box- Cricket Ground yesterday: and win an elusive first World Cup. India when they face off in front of around ing to illustrate his belief that the West Indies Sri Lanka : Steyn 7-2-18-1 (1w); Abbott 6-1-27-1 “I’m quietly confident. I’m always a positive 90,000 fans at the iconic Melbourne Cricket can shock favorites New Zealand. “I remember K. Perera c de Kock b Abbott 3 (1w); Morkel 7-1-27-1 (2nb, 2w); Duminy 9-1-29-3 kind of guy-I always believe in big things,” he Ground today. some guy called Buster Douglas beating Mike T. Dilshan c du Plessis b Steyn 0 (2w); Tahir 8.2-0-26-4 (1w). said. Sri Lanka captain admit- The odds are stacked against them, however, Tyson and it’s a case of that on Saturday,” said K. Sangakkara c Miller b Morkel 45 ted his team suffered severe stagefright. “A score as Bangladesh have beaten their illustrious Sammy. —AFP L. Thirimanne c and b Tahir 41 South Africa M. Jayawardene c du Plessis b Tahir 4 H. Amla c Kulasekara b Malinga 16 A. Mathews c du Plessis b Duminy 19 Q. de Kock 78 T. Perera c Rossouw b Tahir 0 F. du Plessis not out 21 N. Kulasekara c de Kock b Duminy 1 Extras (lb4, w12, nb3) 19 T. Kaushal lbw b Duminy 0 Total (1 wkt, 18 overs) 134 D. Chameera not out 2 Did not bat: R Rossouw, AB de Villiers, D Miller, JP L. Malinga c Miller b Tahir 3 Duminy, D Steyn, K Abbott, M Morkel, I Tahir Extras (b4, lb2, w7, nb2) 15 Fall of wickets: 1-40 (Amla) Total (all out, 37.2 overs) 133 Bowling: Malinga 6-0-43-1 (2nb, 3w); Dilshan 2-0- Fall of wickets: 1-3 (K Perera), 2-4 (Dilshan), 3-69 10-0; Kulasekara 1-0-13-0; Kaushal 6-0-25-0; (Thirimanne), 4-81 (Jayawardene), 5-114 Chameera 2-0-29-0 (1nb, 8w); T Perera 1-0-10-0 (Mathews), 6-115 (T Perera), 7-116 (Kulasekara), 8- (1w). 116 (Kaushal), 9-127 (Sangakkara), 10-133 (Malinga) : South Africa won by nine wickets. History of conflict for Australia and Pakistan

ADELAIDE: Pakistan and Australia go into go home” from Pakistan after controversial tomorrow’s World Cup quarter-final burdened umpiring forced the Australians to react by a history of tension, setting the stage for sharply. The most notorious incident between DHAKA: Bangladeshi cricket fans attend a rally as a show of support to their national team at the Dhaka University Campus yesterday. an explosive contest at the . the two nations came about on Australia’s Bangladesh play the World Cup quarterfinal match against India today. —AP Pakistan’s head coach tour to Pakistan in 1994 when admits previous matches between the two and Tim May alleged then Pakistan captain teams have been hard-fought and he expect- Salim Malik offered them bribes to underper- ed another tough contest for a place in the form in the Karachi Test. Bangladesh to battle odds semi-finals. Mark Waugh also went on record to say “I won’t call Australia bitter rivals but there Malik had asked him to underperform in a is a fierce rivalry that should provide for a one-day match in Rawalpindi. The allegations and crowd against India high-intensity game,” Waqar, one of the forced the Pakistan government to conduct a game’s great exponents, told judicial inquiry which heard testimonies from, MELBOURNE: Playing ‘fearless’ cricket has been Zealand’s quality attack was complemented by than any other result in recent decades. AFP. “We respect each other but do not give among others, the three players in Australia Bangladesh’s war-cry at the World Cup but courage another disciplined effort by the bowlers, underlin- India’s unexpected demise in the first round an inch on the field of play.” The hostilities before Malik and paceman Ataur Rehman alone will not be enough to upset India and their ing the strides they have made since being flayed caused financial carnage for broadcasters and the began in 1981 when Pakistani great Javed were banned for life. army of blue-clad fans at the Melbourne Cricket by Sri Lanka in their second completed pool match. tournament was subsequently re-jigged to ensure Miandad almost came to blows with Six top players, including Waqar, spin Ground where the teams play their quarter-final Captain Mortaza Mashrafe will need his rejuve- cricket’s most bankable team would be guaranteed Australian fast bowler during a bowling coach Mushtaq Ahmed and Waqar’s today. nated seamers to heap pressure on India’s powerful a minimum six matches. Test match in Perth. pace partner , were fined. After a listless leadup to the tournament, reign- lineup early or it could be a long, noisy day Melbourne’s big Indian community and army of Lillee appeared to have deliberately Pakistan losing to Australia in a one-sided ing world champions India have turned into a jug- at the MCG. travelling fans will be in force at the MCG to cheer obstructed Miandad who was about to com- final of the 1999 World Cup held in gernaut, winning all six of their pool matches and “We know that 95,000 people will come to the Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s team into an eighth plete a single and the volatile Pakistani also became the basis of another match-fix- drawing as much admiration for their bowling and ground and most of them will be Indian support- match, just as they were for the match against pushed the bowler and threatened to hit him ing inquiry by the Justice Karamat Bhandari as their renowned batting prowess. ers, but as a professional cricketer I have to concen- South Africa. A crowd of 87,000 turned the venue with the bat. Lillee kicked Miandad before the commission, but all the players were Bangladesh, for all their chutzpah, will simply be trate on cricket so have to handle it,” Mashrafe told into a deafening cauldron for the Proteas, who umpires and fielders intervened to stop absolved of any wrongdoing. The 2003 World happy to be playing off for a semi-final, having nev- reporters on Wednesday. froze to be overwhelmed by 130 runs. things from getting out of control. Lillee was Cup also saw a bitter end to the match er previously made it to the knockout rounds. “Obviously, Bangladesh supporters will be there Bangladesh made their debut at the ground fined, but the incident led to acrimonious ver- between the two countries at Johannesburg. While the term ‘surprise package’ hardly credits so we cannot ask for equal but we’ll be fine.” against Sri Lanka earlier in the tournament and bal duels between the two teams for the rest Pakistan wicket-keeper Rashid Latif was the Tigers’ impressive tournament, Bangladesh Bangladesh have won only three one-day interna- were embarrassed by an abysmal fielding display. of the series. reported to the International Cricket Council were fortunate to take a point from a washed-out tionals in 28 against India but two have been at They arrive a far different team to the rabble Miandad remembered the incident as the (ICC) for a racial slur on his Australian counter- pool match against Australia and met an England major tournaments. The last was at the 2012 Asian that were thumped by 92 runs by the Sri Lankans, worst of his career. “It is hard to forget,” said part . side with morale at rock-bottom. Cup, which followed a shock win at the 2007 World though, and have nothing to lose. Miandad. “We have that history of bitter Test ICC match referee Clive Lloyd conducted Perhaps more impressive than knocking out Cup. A defeat for India by their subcontinental neigh- matches but I suppose this is part and parcel an inquiry but Latif faced no action as evi- England was pushing New Zealand in the dead For a team whose place in the top tier has forev- bours, who they have long dictated to both on and of cricket.” It was Miandad who in 1988 sug- dence was inconclusive but it left a bad taste rubber loss. Batsman ’s second con- er been questioned, Bangladesh’s 2007 upset in the off the field, would be an unthinkable humiliation, gested Australia should “pack their bags and between the two set of players. —AFP secutive one-day international ton against New Caribbean did more to re-shape the tournament however.—Reuters