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Day
4
Day four
(25th October) - first round. Posted 11:40pm Perth Time (GMT+08:00hrs)
South Africa, looking for their first win, take on New Zealand.
England meet the as-yet undefeated Australia
Results:
South Africa 110 ( 2 skins ) defeated New Zealand 109 (
2 skins )
Australia 110 ( 3 skins ) defeated England 62 ( 1 skin
)
Highlights:
Jubilation, and no doubt a large helping of relief, for South
Africa as they recorded their first win in the best game of the
tournament so far. South Africa passed New Zealand's score with
one ball remaining, then safely played out the last for a hard
fought win.
England, chasing Australia's 110, put in as good a first half
of batting as we've seen. Their second pair of Smith and Walton
put on a thoroughly impressive 54 runs, leaving their team 76
after 8 overs. At that stage England needed 35 runs off the remaining
48 balls to beat Australia. However, the Australians were stung
into action and lifted considerably--England's next partnership
was minus 28, leaving the last pair an unlikely target of 62.
Day four
- second round.
New Zealand followed up their heart-breaking loss to South Africa
by taking the court against Australia. England, after earlier
losing quite easily to Australia in the end, fronted up against
a South African side buoyed by their earlier win.
Results:
Australia 99 ( 3 skins ) defeated New Zealand minus 4 (
1 skin )
England 119 ( 2 skins ) defeated South Africa 89 ( 2 skins
)
Highlights:
New Zealand kept Australia to its first score under 100. They
then won the first skin easily. Then, as they did against England
in the earlier game, Australia seemed to once again be stung into
action--the next three NZ batting partnerships were zero, minus
13 and minus 13. It's the first time this series a team has been
kept to a minus score--the fact Australia scored under 100 is
probably scant comfort to the other teams now . . .
England maintained their unbeaten record against South Africa.
Although both teams took 2 skins from the game, it was England's
more consistent batting performance which saw them through to
a 30 run win.
So, after 4 days of competition:
South Africa
on the winners list. Australia still undefeated. New Zealand still
in second place, but now only one point clear of England.
It is still mathematically possible for South Africa to finish
in as high as second place, but it's most unlikely--England would
have to beat New Zealand but win only one skin. This would put
both England and New Zealand on 24 points. At the same time, South
Africa would have to beat Australia and take a minimum of 3 skins.
Then in the second round, South Africa would have to beat New
Zealand and take all skins, and Australia would have to beat England,
taking all skins. The table would then be Australia on top with
53, South Africa in second with 25, New Zealand and England tied
on 24 points. Like we said, possible, but . . . . .
For those of you who've not been able to make the
trip
to Perth, each results page will have a little photo
showing you a bit of our city and surrounds
--- City views ---
Table
after Day 4
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