The last couple of days have produced fascinating results and extremely entertaining cricket, although cricket at times was pretty drab when England were batting in the afternoon.
Almost all the four innings have similar characteristics except that South Africans lost three quick wickets after they passed the hundred mark. England, New Zealand and Zimbabwe lost early wickets.
The Proteas, depleted by the absence of star batsman Gary Kirsten and the deadly duo of Donald and Pollock thrilled the local crowd to some exhilarating fielding in the afternoon and then came in difficult circumstances to wrest the initiative from the Englishmen. Daryll Cullinan in particular was in a devastating mood and secured his 50 (in fact 52) with as many as 12 fours. The rest four came from singles. He set the field afire with his powerful strokes around the wicket. Along with southpaw Mike Rindel, he put on 113 for the first wicket after posting 70 in only 10 overs. A battery of seven bowlers, including Brown, did have no effect on the gritty South Africans.
Brown's departure early in the England innings could not dampen the spirit of Ealham who knocked up a breezy innings of 44. But Hick had another disappointing match going on the back foot and Lloyd came and strolled back to the pavilion. Clearly the Englishmen were naive very unlike them though.
Hollioake along with Neil Fairbrother stemmed the rot. It was obvious that these two were not going to give up without a fight. Cronje gambled with Symcox by opening the attack with him. It soon paid but a thrashing by Ealham send him off.
Fairbrother was on his happy hunting ground. Only a few years back he thrilled the local crowd with an entertaining innings on this wicket. He is a popular man too. These two engaged themselves in the repairing job and put on 112 runs before Fairbrother perished. With Jack Russell and Giles as partner Hollioake took the scope to a defendable figure of 281 - at least it appeared so at lunch interval.
Batting second after a perspiring day on the field is always a hard task. But the South Africans had a tough job ahead of overhauling the England total. The English attack looked pretty innocuous, especially against the onslaught of Cullinan and rookie Rindel. Debutante Dawson and Benkenstein were quite impressive. Unlike his more illustrious colleagues Donald and Pollock, Dawson was a short man and reminded one of the late Ramakant Desai of India as Boje of Nasimul Gani of Pakistan, the only difference being Gani a bit taller and quicker than Boje.
Cronje and Rhodes very efficiently pulled the runs under Hollioake and frustration could be read on the face of the English captain.
South Africa finally won with 20 deliveries to spare. They now await the winners of today's match for the semifinal.