Nasser Hussain, the former England captain and now TV commentator summed it up perfectly: “England played traditional ODI cricket while SA played modern-day ODI cricket”. He was of course referring to the way the teams used the power plays. South Africa attacked and did so rather well, while England was content to sit back and let South Africa take the initiative.
Things weren’t completely bad for England from the beginning. Their top order is woefully out of form and while that did not change, Andrew Strauss and Paul Collingwood seemed to be doing okay as they made it to 3/111 in about 33 overs. And then suddenly, England committed hara-kiri. Andrew Hall, a seam bowler who found some movement off the pitch did enough to move England (and with them, the West Indies) out of the tournament. His spell of 4/9 in 3 overs brought England to 8/121 and a point of no return. Among the failures were the once-great Andrew Flintoff, Paul Collingwood, Paul Nixon and Sajid Mahmood. Andrew Strauss, the man who’s wicket triggered the collapse had fallen to Jacques Kallis as a result of some astute captaincy.
Only Ravi Bopara (27*) and Monty Panesar, who hung around for 27 balls, could delay the inevitable. Some lucky strikes and extras pushed England up to 154, but that was never going to be enough. And so it proved.
Michael Vaughan will no doubt rue the fact that he won the toss and chose to bat first. But it is a mistake that has been done many times before in this World Cup, most notably by India and if Vaughan cannot learn from others’ mistakes, he doesn’t deserve to go any further. England never looked good enough to make it through and they have lost to New Zealand, Australia, Sri Lanka and now, South Africa. Their only wins have been against Canada, Bangladesh, Kenya and Ireland.
The semi-final line-up is now almost certain with Australia to face South Africa and Sri Lanka to take on New Zealand. The only reason that could change is if New Zealand beats Australia on Friday.
On the high confidence level that the players displayed
"Just feeling the atmosphere in the dressing room now it is really upbeat and positive. It is the South African dressing room that I am used to and that will bode well going into the semi-final."
On Andrew Hall's maiden five-wicket haul
"Hally's spell with the reverse swing was superb but he was very well backed up by everyone."
On hitting the winning run
"It was pretty emotional at the end of the game; it was such a big game.
On the resurgent African side under his captaincy
"To see the way the guys did it, the character in the side, that is one of the things that has changed. "It is not a cliche, the guys really do love representing their country.
On ex-players calling for a probe on the night-out session
"There are always a lot of things said when we lose games but it does mean a lot to these guys and it does mean a lot to be in the semi-finals". Hopefully we can win that big game and come back to Barbados
England captain, Michael Vaughan
On being jeered by the supporters after their humiliating loss
'I have been a supporter at a football stadium, and watched England teams that haven't produced a winning performance, and they have had to face the same treatment from fans.' - " We have not produced the performances. So I understand why the fans have given us that reception.We have to accept whatever criticism comes our way.'
On the factors that let them down
'Unfortunately, a batting collapse happened again, and this has been our story at the World Cup. We have got into decent positions and have not been able to capitalize on them.'
On their batsmen crumbling against the Proteas bowlers
'There is no excuse why we did not play it well at all. We have players who have faced that kind of bowling before, and they should be able to adapt, but we did not adapt that well in this match.'
On winning the 3 nations series against the top teams but failing to convert the momentum in the WC
'There needs to be a lot of honesty at this time. 'The England team has had a disappointing six months, I guess we held on the four victories we had in ODI series in Australia"-"This is something we need to examine."
