S. Africa blow Windies apart
South Africa's AB de Villiers plays a pull shot during the World Cup Super Eights match against the West Indies on Tuesday. Reuters |
AB de Villiers slammed a maiden one-day international century to set South Africa on the way to a 67-run win which effectively ended the hosts' hopes of reaching the semi-finals.
"We don't deserve to be in the semifinals and we say to our people, we're sorry about that," said Lara.
"There are many more World Cups to come and we just hope the young players in the team can regroup and get over it. It has been a shock not only not to fulfil our dreams but the dreams of the people of the Caribbean."
Lara said South Africa had outplayed his team.
De Villiers (146) and Jacques Kallis (81) put on 170 for the second wicket and South Africa went on to hammer 356 for four after being sent in.
West Indies managed 289 for nine in reply, with Ramnaresh Sarwan hitting 92.
Lara pointed out that the West Indies had been ranked below all the major teams who had beaten them in the Super Eight phase - Australia, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and South Africa.
"We were the underdogs and we had to work really hard to win. All I can say is that the teams played better cricket than us. There's not much excuse I can give other than the fact that on the day we were outplayed by the opposition."
He admitted: "We did not stand up to the pressure."
South African captain Graeme Smith said it was a "very important" win for South Africa, coming just three days after a shock defeat against Bangladesh in Guyana.
Opening batsman De Villiers, battling cramps, heat exhaustion and dehydration, was the star of the day.
He hammered 146 despite needing treatment for cramp when he was on 91. He also needed Smith to come on as a runner for him when he was on 102.
Lara said he is likely to retire from the one-day game after his side's disappointing World Cup campaign.
Now virtually eliminated, Lara said it was time to move aside to allow fresh talent to come through.
"I think this is the end of my one-day career, for sure," Lara said.
"I honestly feel that my game is over and we should give it to one of the younger players. It's really tough playing one-day internationals out there."
West Indies will tour England in June and Lara said he would "love to sit back and watch and see the team do well".
"I want to leave a team that plays better," he said.
"And that is still my hope. These might be my last two one-day internationals but I still want to see the team moving out of this competition learning something from it and that's all I can hope for."
Lara has played 297 ODIs and scored 10,354 runs at 40.60 with 19 hundreds and 63 half-centuries.
Hayden hits out
Meanwhile, in-form Australia opener Matthew Hayden has said that the World Cup needs to be trimmed.
"It's too long. It's too long for everyone," said Hayden with another 18 days still to play in the 47-day marathon competition.
World Cup holders Australia played their first match in the Caribbean, a warm-up game against Zimbabwe, back on March 5 in St Vincent.
Australia's seven-wicket win over England on Sunday was their first match in eight days; they won't play again until Friday this week when they clash with debutants Ireland here.
"As a batter, it's nice to be able to get that continuous sort of rhythm and once you get into that flow, you don't want to stop," added Hayden, the top run-scorer in the World Cup with 436.
International Cricket Council chief executive Malcolm Speed has defended the length of the tournament which will not finish until the final at the Kensington Oval here on April 28.
"We are criticised sometimes because there is too much cricket and we are criticised here because some of the breaks between two matches are too long," said Speed.
AFP
(China Daily 04/12/2007 page24)
