Eight Super 8 matches at the Cricket World Cup and only one close finish.
South Africa handled underdog Ireland by seven wickets with 21 balls to spare on Tuesday to add to the procession of lopsided victories.
South Africa's Graeme Smith takes a swing in Tuesday's win in Guyana.
(Aman Sharma/Associated Press)
Jacques Kallis scored 66 not out and Ashwell Prince finished with a six for an unbeaten 47 at Georgetown, Guyana, to keep the South Africans in the hunt for a semifinal spot and almost knock out the Irish.
Their innings interrupted three times by rain and cut from 50 to 35 overs, the Irish scored 152 for eight which was not enough against the South Africans, who are officially the top-ranked one-day team in the world.
When A.B. De Villiers cut a ball from Boyd Rankin and William Porterfield took a juggling catch at gully to make it one for one, there was a small chance that Ireland might capture an upset to go with its shocking victory over powerhouse Pakistan in the Group Stage.
But Graeme Smith made 41 to continue his solid series of World Cup performances and, although Herschelle Gibbs contributed only six, Kallis and Prince carefully eased South Africa to a predictable victory at 165 for three.
"We did what we needed to do today," Smith said. "It was stop-start at the beginning and that can suck a lot of intensity out of you.
"But in the end, we managed relatively easily."
The only game to go to the wire in the second-round Super 8s was South Africa's one-wicket victory over Sri Lanka.
And that was only after Sri Lankan fast bowler Lasith Malinga revived a one-sided match by taking four wickets in four balls.
Apart from that, host West Indies has lost by big margins to Australia (103 runs), New Zealand (seven wickets) and Sri Lanka (113 runs); Bangladesh lost to the Australians by 10 wickets and New Zealand by nine; and England beat Ireland by 48 runs.
England in semifinal hunt
With Australia, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and South Africa now favored to capture the top four positions and semifinal berths, the competition is moving toward an expected conclusion, even with three more weeks to go before the semifinals.
England, which faces Sri Lanka on Wednesday before a two-day break, has the chance to join them in the chase for semifinal spots.
"Tomorrow is a real big game, in the context of where we are going to go in this tournament," England captain Michael Vaughan said Tuesday.
"The three games we just played, we knew we should win. It was nice to get the two points against Ireland, but we also know our performance levels have to improve to give Sri Lanka a real good game."
The host West Indies is almost certainly out of it after three consecutive losses, and Bangladesh and Ireland have reached the Super 8s at the expense of India and Pakistan.
Scotland Yard, Interpol assist
Away from the World Cup, four Scotland Yard detectives and two forensic experts from Interpol arrived in Jamaica to help the investigation of the killing of Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer.
The British detectives, including a senior murder investigator, will be reviewing security-camera video from the hotel where Woolmer was found strangled on March 18, said Mark Shields, Jamaica's deputy police commissioner and a Scotland Yard veteran.
"Clearly, they're going to be looking at the main lines of inquiry," he said. "But I'll also get them to review the technical evidence."
A former England test batsman, Woolmer died a day after powerhouse Pakistan was ousted from the World Cup, losing by three wickets to Ireland.
A Jamaican pathologist initially ruled the cause of the death was "inconclusive," but four days later announced Woolmer had been strangled.
