The hosts proteas crashed out of their own World Cup in Durban last night after a monumental cock-up when rain caused their game against Sri Lanka to be declared a tie.Mark Boucher was informed that 229 would be sufficient for victory,which will take them to the super six round, smashed Muttiah Muralitharan for six off the penultimate ball of the 45th over, then pumped his fist in celebration having reached that target.After that he pushed the next ball gently to leg, protecting his wicket, as the rain poured down and forced the players off. South Africa, however, needed another run and under the D/L method the game was declared a tie and the hosts were crashed out of the world cup.
"Boucher was given the message of 229," said the captain Shaun Pollock. "So he was pretty happy when he got that. You can look at all the ifs and buts but in the end it doesn't help much.". Eric Simons, the South Africa coach who admitted that he was not normally keen on letting players know the score in such situations, had handed a copy of the Duckworth-Lewis calculations to Nicky Boje, the 12th man.
They cannot blame D/L but themselves to misunderstand the difference between the PAR score and the required score.
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