2007 Cricket World Cup - 2nd Semi-Final: Australia vs South Africa

April 25, 2007

Australia have beaten South Africa by 7 wickets in the second Semi-Final match in the World Cup at the Beausejour Stadium, Gros Islet, Saint Lucia.

Australia progress to the Final to play yesterday's winners Sri Lanka with a chance to win their third consecutive title.

After winning the toss, South Africa decided to bat. They lost captain Smith in the second over followed by the rest of the top-middle order collapse - including McGrath taking the wickets of Ashwell Prince and Mark Boucher in successive balls. He almost claimed his first World Cup hat-trick but the third ball sailed inches wide of Justin Kemp's off stump. 149 is the worst batting performance in this World Cup for South Africa.

Despite losing Adam Gilchrist in the 2nd over, Australia never really struggled. Helped by another 40 from this year's top scorer Matthew Hayden (who is now only 52 runs behind Sachin Tendulkar's record of 673 runs in a single World Cup, achieved in 2003) and 60* from Michael Clarke they eased towards their place in the final inside 32 overs.

Toss: South Africa won, and elected to bat first.

Fall of wickets: 1-7 (Smith, 2.3 ov), 2-12 (Kallis, 5.3 ov), 3-26 (de Villiers, 8.5 ov), 4-27 (Prince, 9.4 ov), 5-27 (Boucher, 9.5 ov), 6-87 (Gibbs, 22.5 ov), 7-93 (Hall, 26.1 ov), 8-103 (Pollock, 29.4 ov), 9-130 (Nel, 40.1 ov), 10-149 (Langeveldt, 43.5 ov)

Fall of wickets: 1-1 (Gilchrist, 1.1 ov), 2-44 (Ponting, 8.6 ov), 3-111 (Hayden, 24.4 ov)

Did not bat: Michael Hussey, Shane Watson, Brad Hogg, Nathan Bracken, Shaun Tait, Glenn McGrath.

Australia: A C Gilchrist (wkt), M L Hayden, R T Ponting (capt), M J Clarke, A Symonds, M E K Hussey, S R Watson, G B Hogg, N W Bracken, S W Tait, G D McGrath South Africa: G C Smith (capt), A B de Villiers, J H Kallis, H H Gibbs, A G Prince, J M Kemp, M V Boucher (wkt), S M Pollock, A J Hall, A Nel, C K Langeveldt

Player of the match: G D McGrath

Umpires: Aleem Dar (Pakistan) and S A Bucknor (West Indies) TV umpire: B F Bowden (New Zealand) Match referee: J J Crowe (New Zealand) Reserve umpire: M R Benson (England)