South Africa's dream of winning WC 2011 comes to an end

The third quarter-finals of the World Cup 2011 was played between South Africa and New Zealand at Shere Bangla National Stadium, Mirpur, Bangladesh. This was a crucial match for both of them as they have never won any World Cup till now. Who ever wins will proceed to the semi-finals and the other will have to sacrifice their dream of winning their World Cup. New Zealand won the toss & they chose to bat first.

Martin Guptill and Brendon McCullum opened the batting innings for Kiwis. The start was a bad one and the South Africans right from the start were putting pressure on the batting side. Both the openers were unsuccessful and they were back to pavilion in quick interval. NZ were 16 for 2 utilizing 6 overs. Jesse Ryder and Ross Taylor played well and put up a partnership of 114 runs which helped the kiwis to recover a bit. Ross Taylor gave a catch to Jacques Kallis and went back scoring 43 runs consuming 72 deliveries. After this fall, Kiwis could not resist the bowling attack of the South Africans and the wickets kept on falling in regular fashion. The score did not reach high but some how they manage to put up a total score of 221 runs for the loss of 8 wickets in 50 overs (NZ - 221/8, 50 over). Morne Morkel picked up 3 wickets. Jesse Ryder was the highest scorer for Kiwis scoring 83 runs.

This did not look like a huge target for the South Africans as they were playing outstanding World Cup. Hashim Amla in the very first over departed scoring only 7 runs. After this fall, there were some decent partnerships put. After the fall of Jacques Kallis, South African team collapsed. They could not resist the bowling attack of the Kiwis. They failed to reach the target and lost all 10 wickets scoring a total of only 172 runs in 43.2 overs (SA - 172/10, 43.2 over). Jacob Oram took 4 wickets and 2 catches.

New Zealand won the match by 49 runs. Man of the match was Jacob Oram for his brilliant all-rounding performance.

Thus the dream of winning WC 2011 for South Africa came to an end. In yesterday's match, Australia lost to India and were out of WC 2011. Fourth quarter-finals will be played between Srilanka and England. The winner of this match will face Kiwis in semi-finals while India will face Pakistan.

ICC World Cup 2011 updates: Day 18

On the 18th day of the ICC World Cup 2011, Pakistan and New Zealand faced each other at Pallekele International Cricket Stadium, Kandy, Sri Lanka. Kiwis won the toss and they chose to bat first. Today an unbelievable batting performance in the World Cup history was been displayed by the Kiwis. In the last 4.1 overs i.e, in 25 balls, they scored 92 runs. The main player who was behind this was my all time favorite "Ross Taylor".

Martin Guptill and Brendon McCullum opened the batting innings for the Kiwis. Brendon did not stay long, he departed after thrashing Shoaib Akthar for a six. Jamie How came in to bat and he played really slow. He just scored 4 runs in 29 deliveries. Only Martin Guptill was playing at this moment. Ross Taylor entered the crease and he was very defensive at the start. Pakistan were dominant in bowling and they successfully removed 6 wickets in 45.5 overs giving away only 210 runs. At this point of time, New Zealand were in bad position as their run rate was less than 5 runs per over. After this, Jacob Oram and Ross Taylor just belted the Pakistani bowlers in all the ways as much as possible. They destroyed the Pakistani bowling attack, they both scored 85 runs partnership in just 22 deliveries, that means 3.86 runs per delivery. This was the major turning point for the Kiwis. Finally they ended up scoring a magnificent 302 runs in total loosing 7 wickets in 7 overs (NZ - 302/7, 50 over). Ross Taylor was unbeaten scoring 131 runs in 124 deliveries that included 8 fours and 7 sixes. Brendon McCullum had hit a six, Nathan McCullum 2 sixes and Jacob Oram 3 sixes. In total, Kiwis had hit 13 sixes in their batting innings. Only Umar Gul the economical bowler from Pakistan, his economy rate was only 3.2 runs per over and took 3 wickets.

Pakistan after the bad bowling performance, needed 303 runs to win the match. They could not go for big runs as they were loosing the wickets in quick successions. In 17.1 overs, they lost 6 wickets and scored a total of 66 runs only. Umar Akmal, Abdul Razzaq and Umar Gul some how managed to play for longer time and scored some useful runs. But they failed to make it big. Abdul Razzaq made his half-century. Finally Pakistan gave all its wickets to the Kiwis and ended their batting innings scoring a total of 192 runs in 41.4 overs (PAK - 192/10, 41.4 over). Tim Southee took 3 wickets.


New Zealand won the match by 110 runs. Man of the match was Ross Taylor who showed an brilliant batting performance and also took a catch.


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Jacob Oram may not play in IPL Season 3

Due to knee injury New Zealand's all-rounder Jacob Oram’s participation in IPL Season 3 seems doubtful. He has earned a lucrative contract of $675,000 from CSK (Chennai Super Kings) for IPL Season 3. On Wednesday Napier series first ODI was played between New Zealand & Australia where he suffered a partial tear of the patella tendon. So this damage makes his appearance to be doubtful in IPL Season 3 as only 8 days left for the IPL to commence.

“Jacob Oram suffered a partial patella tendon tear. It is expected that Jacob will recover in three or four weeks.” said the New Zealand's team manager Dave Currie.