Ireland v South Africa

Clinical South Africa surge into quarter-finals

Ireland v South Africa, Group B, World Cup 2011, Kolkata.

South Africa 272 for 7 (Duminy 99, Ingram 46, van Wyk 42) beat Ireland 141 (Peterson 3-32, Morkel 3-33) by 131 runs.

The World Cup finally reached Eden Gardens, and the sparse crowd that turned up on an overcast day were treated to a JP Duminy special that lifted South Africa from the dumps, and set up a facile win. Ireland's effort began like a dream and ended like a nightmare as they showcased the inconsistency that holds back upwardly-mobile Associate teams. There was disciplined, if somewhat limited bowling; there were breath-taking fielding efforts to go with grassed sitters; and there was the glaring inability to land the knockout punch, as they let things drift after hustling the opponents into a corner. Duminy was ready when they ran out of steam, and made them pay with a well-paced innings.