It was a game a cricket lover wouldn’t even want to miss for a million! The first semi-final of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 was one of the closest run chases in the tournament so far
As Jason Holder spoke in the press conference, they would fight fire with fire; they got Brendon McCullum (12) out cheaply before he got going. But when the captain fails, it is time for others to step up.
There were fifties, wickets taken, but in the end it was a bowling spell from Wahab Riaz, which will be remembered for a long-long time to come.
With this win, skipper MS Dhoni and his blue brigade have made it seven wins on a trot. The win also marked Dhoni’s 100th win as a captain in One-Day Internationals (ODIs), a feat only achieved before by great Australian skippers – Allan Border and Ricky Ponting.
With the win, South Africa broke the jinx of never winning a World Cup knockout match. Sharing seven wickets between them Imran Tahir and JP Duminy gave South Africa the nudge they were looking for as the batsmen brought the team home in the second innings in just 18 overs.
Ireland, who had begun the campaign with notching up some memorable wins, tried hard but the seven-wicket loss ended their run in the 2015 edition of the mega-event.
Like skipper Jason Holder had said on the match eve that his side could control only what can be controlled, he exactly did that. Putting UAE in, on a sluggish day with the weather threat on, all West Indies could do was bowl well.
It was always predicted to be raining the whole day and so the Aussies wanted to bowl first and wrap up the Scotland innings as early as possible, so as to chase a small score.
The African nation ended their ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 campaign, managing just one win out of their six games but what must have been utterly frustrating is fact that they played well in most of the games and came agonisingly close.
The English side finally managed some smiles after almost a torrid month in this World Cup campaign.