Gibbs fires as SAfrica set Windies 259-run target

Jaipur, Nov 2 (UNI) Herschelle Gibbs silenced his critics with a magnificient half-century and powered South Africa to an impressive 258 for eight in their ICC Champions Trophy semi-final against the West Indies at the Sawai Man Singh Stadium here today.

Gibbs, who had an unimpressive outing so far, accumulating only 16 runs in three matches, batted with resolve and scored 77 (90b, 4x4,1x6) as South Africa shrugged off a poor start to post their highest total in the tournament.

With the top guns misfiring again after South Africa elected to bat, Gibbs refrained from extravagant shots and relied more on rotating the strike. He smashed Dwayne Bravo between cover and mid-off in the 19th over for his first four before subjecting Chris Gayle to the same treatment in 22nd over.

It was a carcking cover drive off Gayle that brought him his 26th half century (67 balls, 4x4).

Meanwhile, AB de Villiers played the perfect foil to Gibbs and the duo added 92 runs in 108 balls for the fourth wicket when the team was struggling at 94 for three.

De Villiers was unfortunate not to have completed his half century when he was brilliantly run out by Brain Lara in the 41st over. De Villiers made 46 off 57 balls with three fours and departed only when the South African scorecard read a healthy 188.

And even as wickets continued to tumble at the other end, Gibbs hung on to the other and upped the ante in the slog overs. He hammered Jerome Taylor out of the fence and South Africa went on to complete there 250 in 49 overs.

Gibbs finally fell in the last over when he tried to hit Bravo out of the ground but could not connect and holed it to Lara at the mid-wicket.

Towards the end, Mark Boucher (16 off 11 balls) and Robin Peterson (15 not out off 12 balls) exhibited some strokemaking to push the Proteas to a challenging total.

For the West Indies, Taylor, Bravo and Marlon Samuels took two wickets each while Bradshaw picked one.

Earlier, South African batsmen were guilty of throwing away their wickets after getting good starts. Graeme Smith hit three boundaries off Bradshaw to reach 19 in no time. But the skipper flattered to deceive again and was castled by Taylor who was bowling with great gusto from one end.

South Africa were 27 for one in sixth over when Jacques Kallis joined Loots Bosman in the middle. Togther they tried to shape up the innings and added 38 runs before Kallis (16, 38b) fell to Bravo in the 17th over.

In a bid step up the run rate, Kallis tried to slash a widish dilivery by Bravo through the covers but only managed to top-edge it to the thirdman where Ramnaresh Sarwan safely pouched the ball.

All this while Bosman looked in real good touch and appeared to justify his inclusion ahead of Boeta Dippenaar. After a cautious start, Loots smashed Taylor through midwicket in the fourth over to bring his first boundary. In the 12th over, he hit the same bowler though cover for four and then stooged a couple more boundaries off Bravo in the next. When he seemed all set for a half century, the batsman edged Samuels in the 23rd over and Chris Gayle made no mistake at covers. Bosman fell for 39 (58balls, 6x4) with the scoreboard reading 96 for three.

South Africa made two changhes in their squad bringing in Bosman and Peterson for Boeat Dippenaar and Charl Langeveldt, while West Indies also made a couple of changes inducting Dwayne Smith and Ian Bradshaw in place of Fidel Edwards and Correy Collymore.

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