Australia crush South Africa by 7 wickets, cruise into final

Beausejour, St. Lucia, Apr 26 (UNI) Australia cruised into the final of the World Cup for the fourth consecutive time after a comprehensive seven-wicket win over South Africa here today to set up title clash against Sri Lanka.

For the mighty Australians, the target of 150 was too easy a chase and they did it in a fine fashion with Matthew Hayden and Michael Clarke leading the defending champions to finish the the job in the 32nd over.

For some brief moments, South Africa raised hopes of giving a good fight by picking up Adam Gilchrist's wicket in the second over itself when Charl Langeveldt bowled him.

But that was only a flash in the pan and once Hayden departed, sanity was also thrown into the dustbin and Symonds and Clarke smashed the remaining runs in quick time.

''I expected some tough fight but eventually it became very easy and for that we owe to our bowlers who did a superb job,'' said Aussie captain Ricky Ponting after the match.

For Graeme Smith, it was a nightmarish end of a dream. Not many semi-finals of the past World Cups were so lopsided. But he was gracious enough to accept the defeat.

''We failed collectively and once we lose the first five wickets, it was a long uphill task and we had no chance'' said Smith, bidding farewell from the tournament while waving to the supporters who came in huge numbers.

Earlier, Glenn McGrath and Shaun Tait ran through the South Africa batting lineup to skittle them out for a paltry 149.

South Africa surrendered before Australia like minnows in one of their worst performances in the recent times. There was no resistance, no fight back or no dogged batting display as the Proteas played like novices.

At one stage, South Africa looked they were in a hurry to end their humiliation, which was resisted actually by Ponting by helping his bowlers to share the spoils.

Had it not been for Justin Kemp, South Africa would have had nothing to bowl at and it was he and Herschelle Gibbs who gave something for the second half.

Kemp remained not out on 49 and was the only innings to mention about besides that of Gibbs who scored 39 runs. Tait completed another four-wicket haul while McGrath picked three. Brad Hogg, Nathan Bracken and Shane Watson scalped one wicket each.

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