South Africa Beat India To March Into Semi-Finals Unbeaten

On a pitch which provided lots of help to the spinners South Africa bounce back after scoring 130/5 in their 20 overs to still beat India by 12 runs. This was India third successive defeat in World Twenty20 2009.

Chasing the target of 131 for victory, Indian openers Gambhir (21 runs of 19 balls) and Rohit Sharma (29 runs of 28 balls) gave perfect start to the team by putting on 48 runs in 6 overs but as soon as Graeme Smith introduced the spinners into the attack Indian inning started to collapse. From 48/0 they were suddenly reduced to 69/5 in the 14^th over including the run out of M.S.Dhoni.

Now it was up to Yuvraj Singh (25 runs of 25 balls) and Harbhajan Singh (14 runs of 15 balls) to guide their team home but J.Botha removed H.Singh in his 4^th over and then D.Styen removed dangerous Yuvraj to move South Africa closer to their eighth successive win. In the end India fell short by 12 runs.

Earlier South African Captain Graeme Smith won the toss and elected to bat on a sharp turning track. But India's slow bowlers strangulated South Africa's impressive batting line-up after a frenetic start, and but for a wonderful hand of 63 from AB de Villiers, the already-eliminated Indians would have been left to chase a miniscule target.

Now South Africa will take on Pakistan in the 1^st Semi Final of ICC World Twenty20 on June 18^th at Trent Bridge and Sri Lanka will take on West Indies at Oval in 2nd Semi Final on 19th of June.

AB Devilliers was declared Player-of-the-Match for his inning of 63 runs of 51 balls.

Match Summary (South Africa won by 12 Runs)

South Africa – 130/5 in 20 Overs

AB Devilliers- 63 G.Smith– 26

R.Jadeja– 3-0-9-1 S.Raina- 1-0-6-1

India– 118/8 in 20 Overs

R.Sharma- 29 Yuvraj Singh– 25

J.Botha– 4-0-16-3 D.Styen- 3-0-25-2