Ramnaresh Sarwan and Shivnarine Chanderpaul both contributed decisive half-centuries as the West Indies booked their place in Wednesday's second Champions Trophy semi-final at the expense of South Africa.

The Pool B decider produced by far the best match of this tedious tournament so far as Sarwan (75), Chanderpaul (51*) and South Africa centurion Herschelle Gibbs (101) providing some much-needed entertainment in yet another tie forced into its reserve day by bad weather.

Sarwan's confidently and expertly-paced innings saw him share stands of 98 with captain Brian Lara and 83 with Guyana teammate Chanderpaul to help the Windies past a target of 246-6 and consign South Africa to their 11th defeat in their last 12 matches with five wickets and just seven balls to spare.

A major contribution from the middle order was a must for Lara's side after Shaun Pollock shot out both their openers in as many balls early in the day.

The Windies had the advantage of much improved batting conditions after the murk which surrounded south London on Saturday but were hit by the loss of Chris Gayle to the final ball of the first over of the day and then Wavell Hinds to Pollock's next delivery.

Gayle, who had dismissively pulled Pollock's second ball to the boundary, chopped on to his stumps as he went in search of more runs off the back foot.

Hinds struck two thunderous fours off Charl Langeveldt's first over at the Vauxhall End but was eliminated by Pollock via a dubious lbw verdict when he was struck high on the back leg.

Lara joined battle for the hat-trick delivery and almost fell for a self-inflicted first-baller, pushing for a quick single into the leg-side and short of his ground had Pollock's turn and throw from his follow-through hit the stumps at the non-striker's end.

A period of stability was required if the Windies were to manage a credible chase, and Lara and his vice-captain Sarwan fulfilled that brief.

Sarwan appeared to be overdoing the waiting tactics when he took 38 balls to reach double-figures, and it was principally Lara's clever placement for ones and twos which kept the score moving sufficiently in a 15-over passage of play - between 17 and 32 - when not one boundary was struck.

The shackles were off when Sarwan struck slow left-armer Nicky Boje straight into the pavilion for the first of his three sixes to go with two fours in his 99-ball innings.

It was in the same over, though, that Lara went down the wicket and was bowled one short of his 50 by Boje to leave the match very much in the balance.

Sarwan's new ally Chanderpaul needed to hit the ground running and did just that as the fourth-wicket pair upped the ante.

There was one more twist to come when Sarwan moved across his stumps and lost his off bail to Makhaya Ntini, leaving Chanderpaul and big-hitting Ricardo Powell still needing 33 runs from the final four-and-a-half overs.

Their tricky task became significantly simpler, however, when the previously miserly Pollock produced two full tosses which were dispatched for leg-side sixes by Powell in a 47th over costing 19.

From there, even the dismissal of Powell - bowled slogging at Ntini - could not quite salvage the match for South Africa, and Chanderpaul finished the job as well as completing his near run-a-ball 50 with a pick-up to leg off Langeveldt for his sixth four.

19 Sep, 2004