West Indies vs South Africa, 7th Match, Group B at Delhi, Feb 24 2011 - Ball by Ball Commentary

India stay on top of Group B on Net run rate, but we have a real long way to go before that begins to matter. Right then, on behalf of Sid Ravi, this is Nitin Sundar signing out. Do check out Liam Brickhill's bulletin on your way out. Do join us for the double header tomorrow, beginning with the Chappell-Hadlee series in the morning. Cheers!

The Delhi crowd and the South African contingent in the stands cheer on as AB de Villiers picks up the Man of the Match award. "It is a batsman's game [that's why Tahir is not Man of the Match he says, tongue in cheek!] I wasn't timing it in the nets last week, but it came off well tonight. Prior IPL experience in Delhi helped a bit - it was my advice to bat second, and that worked for us tonight."

Graeme Smith: (clearly nurning a sore throat of sorts) "Winning the toss was nice, we started well. Darren Bravo played really well, but we managed to peg it back in the middle. We tried to mix it up in the middle. Once you pick a wicket, you can build pressure and we managed to pick up wickets in clusters. My batting wasn't the best - I have been a little ill coming into the game, so I just wanted to bat through with AB and build a partnership. AB went faster than run a ball and paced it real well. Long time to our next game, good vibe in the group and we will take some time off."

Darren Sammy: "We had an opportunity to get a lot more runs .. We needed someone to play like AB did for SA. Few positives - Darren Bravo played really well and we hope he can continue. We kept losing wickets in clusters, and it did not help. Losing Dwayne Bravo was not good for us. We don't know the extent of the injury yet. Hopefully he'll be ok."

The sad thing for West Indies is that they were not as bad as the final margin suggests. In fact, they were on top for a good part of their innings, with Darren Bravo mastering South Africa's spinners and seamers with Laraesque grace. Imran Tahir was hit out of the attack, but once Bravo fell to an efficient Johan Botha, Tahir came back on and turned hoops around West Indies. Steyn did his bit, and West Indies finished well short of what they needed. And then Dwayne Bravo picked up an injury which reduced them to a 2.5-man attack. AB was just too good to let them off. Comprehensive win in the end.

JP: "Good to start with a win. Wasn't too difficult to get in on this pitch. Special knock from AB. You knew when he hit that first four, that he was song. Lots of confidence in the dressming room - Immy [Imran Tahir] did exceptionally, so good on him."

Shreya: "Being a masters in engineering, I can tell you that throwing a water filled bottle as a missile without the cap is very difficult as the the spilling water takes the momentum of the bottle in various directions thus destroying the trajectory."

Kausthub: "@CanisMajoris

Here, they are referring to Plastic bottles and not glass ones by which you could smash heads as alchool is not allowed in the stadiums in the subcontinent!"

Devon Smith for some friendly offies. I get the feeling, something's gotta give. Not.

CanisMajoris (Mr. Violent?): "Well i can still throw a cap-less water filled bottle and smash someones head to pieces!!!"

Roy: "Nitin you are right about overzealous administrators. I would add they are callous as well. Heard Javagal Srinath on TV saying that the crowd thing is not new and has always happened in Indian cricket! How could he brush it off so casually?

Mahbub: "Re efficient police: In the Fatullah warm-up match in Bangladesh, the stadium security did allow spectators to enter the ground with water bottles but were not allowed to take in the bottle caps. Logic: without the caps, the water bottles could not be used as impromptu missiles!"

Bizarre.

Pollard comes on now. Round the wicket.

Daniel: "While we r concentrating on Ab's century.. at the other end JP goes past 2000 ODI runs.. Well done JP"