Saturday’s cricketing action saw Betcirca come good on a number of bets. We successfully predicted runs for Brendon Taylor and Seam Williams despite Zimbabwe falling a few runs short against Ireland. In the other match, Pakistan caused a major shock by beating World Cup frontrunners South Africa.
Day 21 Results
1. Pakistan v South Africa
Pakistan’s bowlers delivered an unexpected win in their rain shortened World Cup match against South Africa overnight. The win sees Pakistan move to third in Pool B and level with South Africa and Ireland on 6 points.
It came courtesy of their bowlers. Seamers, Rahat Ali; Wahab Riaz; and Mohammed Irfan all took three wickets each in an excellent display of disciplined yet aggressive short pitched bowling. South Africa’s batsman were reckless with their wickets, and gifted nine catches out of the ten wickets to fall.
Batting first, Pakistan made it to 222, largely thanks to another half century by Misbah ul-Haq (56) and a mature first World Cup knock form reinstated keeper Sarfraz Ahmed (49). Useful contributions also came from Younis Khan and Shahid Afridi in difficult conditions of wind and rain. The total was unusually small for Eden Park but was more than Australia almost managed to defend against New Zealand a week earlier.
It proved to be enough. South Africa imploding to be all out for 202. A spate of rash strokes gave them little chance of handling the total. No one taking the requisite responsibility to see them through to their total or providing AB de Villers with support.
AB de Villiers commented after the match that “he had nothing good to say about his team”, but he probably had a few kind words for himself. He was the South African side’s only hope as he smashed his way to 77 off 58 balls – in the process enjoying the small square boundaries at Eden Park.
Certainly a boil-over, one that was terrific for Pool B. But not one that will affect the semi-finalists in our view.
Pakistan 222 (Misbah 56, Steyn 3-30) beat South Africa 202 (de Villiers 77, Rahat 3-40, Wahab 3-45, Irfan 3-52) by 29 runs (D/L method)
2. Zimbabwe v Ireland
The second Pool B match of the day featured too similar sides. Ireland and Zimbabwe are not within the top echelon of world cricket teams, but they have both handled themselves nicely in this World Cup. Competitive in most of their matches, just lacking a little bit of death bowling nous or luck to stop the huge totals against them.
Today’s game again featured huge totals. Ireland made 331 for 8 form their allotment. Ed Joyce and Andre Balbirnie were the mainstays of the innings – Joyce getting to a hundred, and Balbirnie narrowly missing out.
In response Zimbabwe looked on course for much of the game led by World Cup standouts Brendon Taylor and Sean Williams. Taylor had 121 from just 91 balls before he tried one lofted shot too many. However, with Sean Williams still going along nicely, Zimbabwe were a firm chance. If Sean Williams had batted the 50 overs they might have got home. Unfortunately, he was given out on 96, caught on the boundary by John Mooney in a moment of YouTube notoriety. The controversy surrounded whether Mooney had touched the boundary rope when completing the catch. Replays suggested some portion may have been touching the rope, but there was an additional complication from the shadow of the boot.
Who really knows? And at the end of the day the newspapers reported a 5 run win to Ireland.
Ireland 331 for 8 (Joyce 112, Balbirnie 97, Chatara 3-61) beat Zimbabwe 326 (Taylor 121, Williams 96, Cusack 4-32) by five runs
Betfair:
Bet on Henrik Stenson to become the BMW PGA Championship Winner.
Paddypower:
Back Australia to take the Ashes home with them.
Betway:
Back Rafael Nadal to become the Mens French Open Winner.
Coral:
Back One For Arthur to win the Grand National.
Bet365:
Back Mexico to win the Confederations Cup.
