Sydney: South Africa stormed into the semi-final of the World Cup with a nine wicket victory over Sri Lanka on Wednesday (March 18) and captain AB de Villiers later rated the performance among the best he’d seen.
Post Match Press Conderence
South Africa dismissed Sri Lanka for 133 and then took just 18 overs to knock off the runs for the loss of one wicket.
de Villiers lauded his spinners for the way they bowled to the Sri Lankans, one of the better batting sides against spin.
Pakistan-born spinner Imran Tahir claimed 4-26 to mow down Sri Lanka’s middle order and JP Duminy notched a hat-trick at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
“It’s up there with one of the best I’ve seen,” said de Villiers.
“I wouldn’t say it’s the best, but definitely the most important performance in the most important game to date. We just worked really well today as a bowling unit today, and the fielders backed it up exceptionally well.”
Asked about accusations South Africa ‘choke’ on the big occasions – the match was their first ever World Cup victory in the knock out stages – de Villiers smiled as he said: “I don’t mind really. I think we liked being called chokers, so we’ll just keep that tag and move along as long as we keep winning.
“We came here to win the World Cup. Our next hurdle is the semifinals and we’ll try to find a way to get over that hurdle. We still have hopefully two games to go. We haven’t won the World Cup yet.”
In the semi-final South Africa will face New Zealand or West Indies in Auckland next Tuesday.
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