'Crazy cricket' blamed for Protea defeat

Beausejour, St. Lucia, Apr 26 (UNI) South Africa were done in by ''crazy cricket'' in their crushing seven-wicket defeat at the hands of Australia in the second semi-final of the cricket World Cup here.

''The first hour was some of the craziest cricket South Africa have ever played,'' said former batsman and now commentator Daryl Cullinan.

Haroot Lorgat, South Africa's convenor of selectors, said the batsmen had ''very poor, very soft dismissals''.

''Nobody was up to it today,'' he said on SuperSport television.

Lorgat feared the team had been undone by nerves despite claims by coach Mickey Arthur that they had taken everything in their stride rather than being weighed down by past failures, including their 1999 semi-final loss to Australia.

''I wonder how much tension was in them despite what Mickey was saying about their calmness because I just did not see what I was expecting to see,'' Lorgat said.

South Africa had gone into the tournament as the number one ranked team in the world but Lorgat acknowledged they had been completely outplayed by the side they had dislodged from the top spot in ICC table just before the World Cup.

''Today we were just flat, just completely nowhere in the game.'' Former captain Kepler Wessels felt Graeme Smith's pre-match confidence was all a show.

''You're always going to be uptight, nervous. That would have been a common thread, to put on a united front but everyone would have been pretty tense.'' Wessels, who also played for Australia when South Africa were banned from international cricket during the apartheid era, called for a major rethink of the whole approach to one-day cricket.

South Africa have been widely criticised for their lack of a match-winning spin bowler and once again took on the Australians with an all-pace attack that showed little signs of penetration.

While Australia's pace bowlers did most of the damage, their spinner Brad Hogg conceded only 24 runs in his 10 overs.

''The Australians outplayed us in every department. We cannot continue to play such predictable cricket. It's so easy to play South Africa,'' said Wessels.

Former South Africa batsman Adam Bacher said the gap between the two teams was almost embarrassing.

''It was boys against men. They (Australia) taught us a cricket lesson,'' Bacher told a TV channel.

UNI