World Cup warm-up: Cakewalk for South Africa against Australia

Defending champions Australia’s run up to the World Cup continued to be a nightmare for captain Ricky Ponting as they lost their second warm-up match against South Africa by seven wickets at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Tuesday. In fact, the Aussies managed to pick up just one wicket as two South African batsmen were retired out.

The Aussies, who had lost their first warm-up match against India on Sunday, failed to make any impact with the bat or the ball as South Africa won their second consecutive warm-up match.

With this convincing victory, the Proteas made it clear that they will be one of the teams who will challenge the expected subcontinental domination.
Chasing 218, skipper Graeme Smith (65) and Hashim Amla (60) took the match away from the Aussies with their 131-run stand before Smith retired.

Amla too retired shortly to give the much-needed batting practice to the other batsmen. The only wicket to fall for the Proteas was of Faf du Plessis, who was run out. JP Duminy (47) and AB DeVelliers (16) completed the formalities for their team as all the Aussie bowlers went wicketless.

Earlier, the only highlight of the Australian innings was the third-wicket partnership between Ricky Ponting (55) and Michael Clarke (73). The two added 126-runs as the skipper scored his second successive half century after returning to the game following a finger injury.

The rest of the batsmen, once again, disappointed as the South Africa seamers seemed to be on top with their superb line and length up front. Dale Steyn (8-2-21-3) and Robin Peterson (8-0-45-3) caused maximum damage as the Aussies failed to play out their full quota of 50 overs and were bowled out for 217 in the 48th over.

Dutch sink Kenya
Meanwhile, Ryan ten Doeschate hit a brilliant 98 not out to guide the Netherlands to a two-wicket upset win over Kenya in a World Cup warm-up match in Colombo on Tuesday. Ten Doeschate’s knock helped the Netherlands chase 264 runs after being down and out at 130-7 with part-timer Steve Tikolo taking four wickets. Serene Waters had scored a brilliant 126 not out for Kenya.

Ireland pip Zimbabwe
Andre Botha and Kevin O’Brien hit resolute half-centuries to carry Ireland to a final over, four-wicket victory in the warm-up game against Zimbabwe in Nagpur, on Tuesday. Botha top-scored with 79 and O’Brien hit an unbeaten 62 as Ireland chased Zimbabwe’s competitive 244/8 with three balls to spare.

Brief scores
In Bangalore: Australia 217 (M Clarke 73; D Steyn 3/21) lost to South Africa 218/3 (G Smith 65*, H Amla 60*) by 7 wickets; In Colombo: Kenya 263/5 (S Waters 126*; R ten Doeschate 2/47) lost to Netherlands 264/8 (R ten Doeschate 98*; S Tikolo 4/39) by 2 wickets; In Nagpur: Zimbabwe 244/8 (E Chigumbura 103*; D Johnston 2/9) lost to Ireland 245/6 (A Botha 79; R Price 2/37) by 4 wickets; In Mirpur: Pakistan 285/9 (A Shehzad 103, M ul Haq 100; S Al Hasan 3/49) beat Bangladesh 196 (I Kayes 39; A Razzaq 3/31) by 89 runs; In Colombo: West Indies 281 (C Gayle 58; L Malinga 3/33) lost to Sri Lanka 282/6 (K Sangakkara 71, T Dilshan 62) by 4 wickets