South Africa bounced back strongly after their defeat to Bangladesh to beat the West Indies and send them packing from the World Cup. Even if West Indies win their final two games, they are unlikely to qualify for the semi-finals. It was a sad sight to see the once mighty West Indies , being clobbered all over the park by the South Africans. That a new ball bowler, Darren Powell, was hit for sixes in the 49th over, just tells you, how far the giants have fallen. Without trying to live in the past, nobody would have even dreamt of hitting a West Indian quickie for a six over long-on, as happened to Powell.

Sure, the previous generation quicks were hit for six too, but only off hook or pull shots and not over long-on. That happens to spinners and the pace at which Powell was bowling was not much quicker than a spinner. The only bowler to get any respect was Collymore who captured 2 wickets for 41 runs. Apart from the lack of pace, the new ball bowlers of the West Indies also are not as athletic as the previous generation. Those quick bowlers were terrific movers in the deep and got the ball back flat to the wicketkeeper from the boundary to stop the batsmen stealing the extra run.

Graeme Smith, the South African skipper, missed out on the party as everybody else enjoyed themselves. De Villiers who has done little of note so far, showed that he enjoys playing the Windies attack and got another big score, as did Kallis and then Gibbs and Boucher smashed hurricane half centuries to power South African past the 350 mark.

With Gayle and Chanderpaul failing, Lara had a big job on his hand, but he was not up to it, and but for Sarwan’s excellent innings and some late flurry of hitting by Powell, the Windies would have struggled to get to 250.

It was a big win for South Africa and de Villiers is the Man of the Match for giving the start to the team and carrying on even after getting to his century. He showed the way and the others followed eagerly cashing, in on a truly mediocre attack.