The Proteas were up for the challenge this time though, with an in-form 15-member squad to choose from. Both the teams were under tremendous pressure, as on the one hand, it was an opportunity to get a spot in the semi-finals, while, on the other, a door to exit from the tournament.

New Zealand won the toss and elected to bat. They did not have the start they might have envisaged, with the openers falling within the first ten overs. Ryder and Ross Taylor took control of the situation thereafter. The two played a watchful inningsand managed to keep the South African spin attack at bay. After the batsmen had settled in, runs began to come more freely. Ross Taylor, who had hit the most number of sixes in the tournament so far, was on show today as well. He played some excellent shots. Taylor is also New Zealand’s highest run-scorer for the tournament.

South Africa began to feel the pressure as the 3rd wicket partnership crossed 100 runs. Imran Tahir, who has been a kind of revelation for South Africa this world cup, backed his reputation. He bagged the wicket of Taylor and later Ryder. New Zealand lost wickets in quick succession post that. Willamson tried to build on what the partnership had achieved but he soon found himself running out of partners. Morkel swiped the tailender wickets, bringing the Kiwis total to a barely competitive 221 from 50 overs.

A one-sided affair was expected from the game with the turn of events so far. But New Zealand went in for spin in their innings. Nathan McCullum bowled the first over. Results were seen immediately, with Amla, who had looked dangerous against India, falling in the first over itself. He got out in a freakish manner – the ball under-edged the bat, ricocheted off of the keeper’s foot and went on to hands of Vettori, who was standing at first slip.

Next man in was Jacques Kallis. Smith and Kallis stayed steady as houseboats, scoring runs freely undeterred by anything the Kiwi bowling attack had to offer. Kiwi shoulders began to drop as the Proteas cruised to 50 runs in 10 overs. However, Smith departed shortly after, giving away his wicket to a wide ball. De Villiers continued the momentum with Kallis and together they added another 50 to the team’s tally. Southee provided the turning point of the game. Kallis, looking to finish things of early, pulled a short ball of Southee’s bowling. The ball looked like it would go for a six but Oram was waiting there at deep midwicket. He grabbed on to the ball, giving the Kiwis the crucial breakthrough.

What followed was the fall of South African dreams and the rise of Kiwi aspirations. The newly returned captain Vettori brought in a sense of self belief in the players. They set an attacking field and did not let the opening batsmen settle down. South Africa went from 3-108 to 7-132 in a period of ten overs. History seemed to have taught nothing to the Proteas who seemed within reach of another defeat against the Kiwis. Du Plessis tried organising a fight back but it was a case of much too little and much too late for the task at hand. Another 70 runs were needed to cross the line.

South African supporters who were hanging on to the glimmer of hope Du Plessis was providing them were cheering every run. This too vanished with his fall. Among the New Zeland bowlers, Oram took 4 wickets and Nathan McCullum took a career best of 3-24.

Proteas were bowled out at 172 and with that ended their journey in the world cup. Many players of the team were disappointed, as this was possibly their last world cup. Kiwis were kicked about the comeback they had made.

Now it is going to be interesting to see who joins them in the semi-finals, Srilanka or England. Any guesses?

Match Summary:

New Zealand 221 (Ryder 83,Taylor 43,Morkel 3-43) beat South Africa 172 (Kallis 47,du Plessis 36, Oram 4-39) by 49 runs.

Man of the Match: Jacob Oram.

Bacher said Modi had no doubt played a part in making the Indian Premier League an extraordinary success but his tendency to take unilateral decisions ultimately paved his downfall.

“There is no doubt that the IPL is an extraordinary success but his style of functioning created a lot of resentment among the other Board members. You cannot ignore the others for too long. You cannot vest all the powers in one person”, Bacher told a group of visiting Indian journalists here. “He (Modi) was an opportunist and his potential downfall is a lesson for persons in similar position. He is paying the price for all that now.”

Bacher, whose company was involved in installing floodlights in some of the IPL venues, said his payments were delayed for over 15 months as the organisers and the host association kept dilly-dallying on the payment issue, though Modi kept his word of making payments.

Bacher also criticised Modi for trying to take credit for innovating the Twenty20 format of the game, saying the shortest format of the game started in England and had become quite popular there.

The former administrator said that while T20 cricket had become popular, it was imperative to strike the right balance among all the three formats when the calendars are drawn.

“There is too much cricket being played these days. The top teams play too much and that is certainly a concern. Everything has to be balanced. T20 is popular, but if we play too much it will be a problem”, he said.

Bacher, who was largely responsible for bringing South Africa back into international cricket following the apartheid era, is concerned that the South African system is no longer producing quality black cricketers.

“After the retirement of (Makhaya) Ntini, not many black cricketers are making it to the national squad on merit. If this trend continues for some more years, it could pose a lot of problems”, he reckoned. “May be the development programmes have lost their impetus. More needs to be done to bring the desired results. Eighty percent of the population is black Africans and it is important that we have more black cricketers.”

Bacher singled out batting great Sachin Tendulkar for special praise among contemporary cricketers, saying he was one of the greatest cricketers of all time and a “big asset” for Indian cricket.

“Sachin has never changed, he is truly great… He is a great asset to Indian cricket and world cricket. The ICC should make him the game’s ambassador after his retirement. He is always going to be special”, he said.

The series is being held in the Emirates after the South Africans refused to tour Pakistan because of the prevailing security situation there.

Originally, the series had three Tests, three one-dayers and a Twenty20 match, but Pakistan requested South Africa to revise the schedule keeping in mind next year’s 50-over World Cup.

“We felt that with the World Cup coming up, it would be better for both the teams to play an extra one-day match then a third Test match,” a Pakistan Cricket Board official said.

Pakistan has been isolated as an international venue since March last year when militants attacked the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore. The attack that shook the cricketing world killed five Pakistani policemen and a van driver and wounded six Sri Lankan players. Since then no foreign team has agreed to visit the strife-torn nation, forcing Pakistan to play its share of home series at neutral venues.

Abu Dhabi and Dubai had already hosted Pakistan’s series against Australia and New Zealand.

PCB chairman Ejaz Butt said that he was grateful to the Cricket South Africa (CSA) for agreeing to play the series in the UAE.

“I am very grateful to Dr Mtutuzeli Nyoka and Gerald Majola (CSA chief executive) for their understanding of our position and supporting us to make this series possible. I would especially like to thank the Emirates Cricket Board for their unwavering support to Pakistan Cricket,” Butt said in a statement. “This series will provide great entertainment for cricket fans as PCB and CSA have worked hard to bring this event about and we are very excited to be returning to the world class facilities in the UAE.”

“It’s a good way to start off the tour, having practiced indoors and not outdoors for the last few weeks,” said McLaren. “But it’s only the first day, and there’s plenty more cricket to come, so hopefully, I can better this performance. We all know the nature of T20 cricket – the bowler is always up against it.”

“You can take five wickets one day, and the next day, take a thumping, but I enjoyed it. It was not an easy day for the batters, and you had to graft pretty hard. Playing shots was not easy, and there was a strong wind, so there were a lot of things you had to take into consideration. It was obviously nice to start with a win. This was the most important thing for us. We have worked really hard over the last few days here in Antigua, had a few discussions, the energy has been good around the team, and a lot of new faces have come in. We want to have a good tour of the Caribbean, so success in this match was very important to get us off on the right foot,” McLaren, who was later named the Man of the Match, added.

Proteas captain Graeme Smith lauded Mclaren’s performance and said his spell of bowling was the decisive factor in the match.

“Ryan’s bowling today was extremely important for us. At the moment you would say he is more of a bowling all-rounder and he did a great job for us. He certainly has a lot of skills with the bat and I am sure he will keep working on those. He can certainly cement a place for himself in the squad in the short format going forward,” Smith said.

The series is very important for the confidence of both teams after they failed to reach the semi-finals of the World Twenty20. The two Twenty20s are followed by five ODIs and three Tests and the West Indies captain Chris Gayle said there was plenty of room for improvement from his men.

“It was a disappointing start for us,” Gayle said. “We wanted to put our dismal performance in the T20 World Cup behind us, but this was not the best way to do it, and was not the best start to the series. We still have a match on Thursday, so we have to pick ourselves up. This is no time for pointing fingers. We have a lot of corrections to make out there, and we have to return to the drawing board to try and get the best out of the players.”

“Who takes over?” Pollock asked. “Is there someone who can do a better job? If Graeme [Smith] has had enough and wants to get out, that’s a different thing. But change for the sake of change is not clever.”

South Africa are under fire after a disappointing performance at the World Twenty20 in the Caribbean. They were eliminated in the second round to stick to the script of failing to fulfil their highly-ranked potential in ICC tournaments. Questions are being asked about Smith’s future as captain, and the first sign that major changes are underway was the announcement that AB de Villiers will keep wicket in the two Twenty20 matches and five one-day internationals South Africa will play on their current tour of the West Indies. De Villiers replaces the 33-year-old Mark Boucher, a fixture in the team who has played 131 Tests, 291 one-day internationals and 25 Twenty20 internationals.

Pollock’s tenure as captain ended after South Africa bowed out of the 2003 World Cup, which they played at home, in the first round. Smith took over the reins from Pollock, and he is still the skipper. The former all-rounder suggested that the support structures around South Africa’s captain may need attention.

“There were still goals I wanted to achieve and things I wanted to do with the team when I resigned,” Pollock said. “But I remember [former captain] Hansie [Cronje], towards the end of his time as captain, saying he was running out of ideas. The people around the captain need to make sure they are giving him different ideas. It’s a collective effort, and the South African team has always worked that way.”

Pollock’s career continued as a player under Smith’s captaincy. Asked what did he make of him as a leader? Pollock said, “If there was ever any issue between us, it was because I was just getting used to his style of captaincy. He likes to lead from the front, but he was always open to ideas and searching for new ways to take the team forward.”

South Africa will also play three Test matches in the Caribbean. The first Twenty20 international is in Antigua on Wednesday.

Smith had broken his finger while playing for Rajasthan Royals in the early stages of the Indian Premier League and had to fly back home but he has now recovered fully from the injury.

“The injury has healed a lot quicker than I expected,” Smith told reporters in Barbados. “It was probably a small blessing in disguise in many ways, with the change of coach – allowing me to spend some time with Corrie and the management team and plan for this.”

Van Zyl took over as South Africa coach following the resignation of Mickey Arthur in January. He oversaw South Africa’s tour of India, where the visitors drew the Tests and were beaten in the ODIs.

“To be with Mickey for five years, his resignation meant it was quite an emotional time – quite draining, especially for me on a personal level,” Smith said. “There has been an interim process; the tour to India was quite quick after that, but the last six weeks have allowed Corrie time to settle down. He is a very detailed, hard-working guy – and the injury allowed me and him some time to talk and plan and get to know each other a little bit better and form a relationship. It’s a little bit of a bonus coming out of the injury; otherwise, being in India for the last six weeks would have been a little bit panicky.”

South Africa have always been known to be the chokers. They haven’t won any major ICC tournament till date despite reaching the semi-finals on more than one occasion. They hosted the inaugural edition of the T20 tournament in 2007 and failed to qualify for the semi-final. They made it to the knockout stage the second time, in England, but were beaten by Pakistan, now the defending champions.

Smith said that T20 is a short event and expected a closely-fought tournament this time around.

“It is a pretty quick turnaround from last year’s Twenty20,” Smith said. “It’s a very short, intense tournament – and a lot of teams are close together. That’s what makes it so exciting to watch. It’s very competitive, and on any given day any team can beat another.”

South Africa is scheduled to play England in a warm-up game in Barbados on Thursday before playing their first match of the tournament on May 2 against India.

Smith had suffered a broken finger while playing for his IPL franchise, Rajasthan Royals, and had returned home for treatment. Wayne Parnell, however, will be missing the World T20 after suffering a groin injury. Parnell, who is part of the Delhi Daredevils team in the IPL, had returned home without playing a game this season.

Parnell, 19 at that time, was one of the stars of last year’s World Twenty20 in England, taking nine wickets at an average of 13.22 to help South Africa reach the semi-finals where they lost to eventual champions, Pakistan.

Big-hitting all-rounder Justin Kemp was also ruled out after being injured in the IPL. He hurt his back during the IPL in which he plays for the Chennai Super Kings.

The only new face in the South African squad is the uncapped Juan “Rusty” Theron, who has impressed one and all in the IPL so far, where he is playing for the Kings XI Punjab.

“Rusty Theron has impressed everybody with his skills and his temperament, both in domestic cricket and in the Indian Premier League. He was a key player for the Warriors in doing the domestic limited overs double,” said coach Corrie van Zyl.

With both Parnell and Kemp injured, all-rounder Rory Kleinveldt, who was not in an 18-man short list named recently, won a surprise call-up. “Rory will be a good like-for-like replacement for Parnell,” said Van Zyl.

“He is capable of opening the bowling or operating at first change and he has also been a regular death bowler for the Cape Cobras, which is an important area for us. Rory also gives us some good batting options down the order.”

Hard-hitting batsman Loots Bosman and swing bowler Charl Langeveldt, who were not part of the 2009 team, were also included.

South Africa will play warm-up matches in Barbados against Sri Lanka on April 27 and England on April 28 before starting the tournament with a match against India in St Lucia on May 2.

South Africa squad: Graeme Smith (captain), Jacques Kallis (vice-captain), Lungile Bosman, Johan Botha, Mark Boucher, AB de Villiers, JP Duminy, Herschelle Gibbs, Rory Kleinveldt, Charl Langeveldt, Albie Morkel, Morne Morkel, Dale Steyn, Juan Theron, Roelof van der Merwe.

Procter confirmed to Talk Radio 702 that Cricket South Africa had fired the entire selection panel, which included Craig Matthews, Winky Ximiya and Mustapha Khan, and an interim one would be appointed to serve until February 19. “It came as a huge shock to us all,” Procter said.

He added that only the board can clarify whether the decision is linked to the transformation issue. “I had a phone call early yesterday evening, Gerald Majola informing me that this selection panel would not be required in future,” Procter told eNews, a South African news channel. “Everyone was told that this was going to be a talk after the series. We were just going to make some presentations. They weren’t going to come after anyone. It wasn’t going to be a witch hunt.”

“I think we had too short a time in the business, as selectors we always gave our own thoughts, we never ended up voting on issues, we talked around issues, we enjoyed each other’s company and I think we were doing pretty well. The time we had was too short but we did introduce some new players,” added Proctor.

An interim selection panel, consisting of CSA Chief Executive Officer Gerald Majola, new interim coach Corrie van Zyl and former skipper Kepler Wessels has been formed. The interim panel will be in place until the CSA Board meeting on February 19, where the national team structures will be finalised.

Meanwhile, Gerald Majola addressed a media conference in East London and said Arthur’s resignation was accepted with “regret”. “It is with much regret that the Board of Directors of Cricket South Africa has accepted Mickey Arthur’s resignation as the Proteas coach. His resignation came through the normal stocktaking process which followed the England home series and against the backdrop of the disappointing results of 2009.”

“As this process unfolded and remedies were sought, Mickey expressed the very honest and humble view that he did not believe that at this stage he could continue as coach of the Proteas,” Majola said in presence of Arthur, captain Greame Smith and Corrie.

Kallis finished the day at 108 not out to keep South African hopes of a comeback in the series alive after the home team was in trouble at 127 for 5. It was a crucial knock for the burly all-rounder after South Africa had lost the second test at Durban by an innings and 98 runs to go 1-0 down in the series.

Earlier, England skipper Andrew Strauss won the toss and opted to bowl first in overcast conditions. And James Anderson proved his skipper right when he got Ashwell Prince (0) to edge one to wicket-keeper Matt Prior off just the fourth ball of the match.

South Africa could have been two down soon, as skipper Graeme Smith, on one at that time, edged the first delivery off the second over by Graham Onions straight to second slip but Graeme Swann couldn’t hang on to a sitter.

Smith and Hashim Amla put on 45 for the second wicket before Amla was leg before wicket to Graham Onions for 14. Smith was the next to go for 30 caught behind off Anderson off the first ball he faced after lunch.

Jacques Kallis and AB De Villiers then consolidated the innings to some extent with a 76 runs stand off 126 balls. Swann, man of the match in the first two Tests, ended the third wicket partnership when he had De Villiers smartly caught at short midwicket by Strauss for 36.

JP Duminy then suffered his second successive first-ball dismissal when he edged a catch to wicketkeeper Matt Prior.

Boucher then provided able support to Kallis. Boucher, in particular, was in splendid form as he made 51 off 87 balls before he was leg before wicket to Broad.

Dale Steyn provided surprisingly capable support to Kallis adding an unbeaten 63 runs for the seventh wicket until bad light stopped play 20 balls after the second new ball was taken. For England, James Anderson finished the day with figures of 2 for 62 while Swann finished with 2 for 74.

Match Summary:

South Africa 279 for 6 (Kallis 108*, Boucher 51, Steyn 26*, Anderson 2-62) v England

Kallis has now scored 8,627 runs in this decade. Only the Australian skipper Ricky Ponting (9,446 runs) has scored more runs than him in the last 10 years.

South African skipper Graeme Smith lavished praise on Kallis for his achievement but he also said that the African nation has to start searching for a replacement for the champion batsman, especially in the wake of the rib injury that kept Kallis out of the first test against England.

“Jacques is one of the best players in the world, and (almost) 10,000 test runs and 300 wickets is not something achieved lightly,” Smith said. “It’s an incredible luxury to be able to call on a player of his calibre for more than a decade, but we realise that he will not always be there. That’s why we started this year to consider multi-faceted options.”