Hayden's record ton sets up Australia's thumping win
Basseterre (St Kitts): Australia showed who's the real number one by crushing South Africa for a 83-run victory in the World Cup Group 'A' cricket one-dayer here on Saturday.
Three-time champions Australia, who recently lost their status as world's top one-day team to South Africa, put up a commanding performance to round off their group engagements and move into the Super Eight with an all-win record.
Put in to bat, the Australians rode on a record-breaking hundred by Matthew Hayden to post a mammoth 377 for six before containing the Proteas to 294 in 48 overs at Warner Park. Hayden led the Australian run-fest with a 68-ball 101 while skipper Ricky Ponting (91) and Michael Clarke (92) sustained the assault with aggressive half-centuries.
The Australian total was the third highest in World Cup matches, after India's 413-5 against Bermuda earlier in the tournament and Sri Lanka's 398-5 against Kenya in 1996. Hayden brought up his century off 66 balls, one less than what Canada's John Davison needed against the West Indies in South Africa four years ago, for the fastest hundred in World Cup history.
South Africa, who last season successfully chased Australia's 434 for 4 at home, were set for an encore when they were placed at 220-1 in the 32nd over. Captain Graeme Smith and AB de Villiers gave the world's top side the perfect launchpad with a 160-run opening stand but the rest of the batting failed to stand up to the task.
Both the teams had already booked their berth in the Super Eight but Australia will now carry two points into the second stage while South Africa none. Hayden hammered 14 fours and four sixes as he bludgeoned the South African bowling.

Gros Islet, St Lucia: Kenya captain Steve Tikolo said it was vital the Africans played more major international matches if they were to progress as a cricket nation after they went out of the World Cup with a seven-wicket defeat against England. Whoever won Saturday's clash at the Beausejour Cricket Ground were assured of joining Group C winners New Zealand in the Super Eight stage of the tournament. But although the experienced Tikolo scored 76, after winning the toss and batting, no other Kenyan made more than 17 as they were bowled out for 177 in a match reduced by rain to 43 overs per side. "We need more games. I've been saying this since time immemorial," a frustrated Tikolo told reporters. "You can't come here without playing at this level consistently. "If you look at our calendar now we have the Twenty20 World Cup (in South Africa) in September. But between now and September there's nothing for us. You can't compete like that." Tikolo said the Test nations had to make room in their own schedules, drawn up in response to the International Cricket Council's 10-year plan if the likes of Kenya were to improve their standards. "I think our board has been talking to the ICC but the excuse we always get is that the Test countries are busy with their 10-year calendar. But if you want the other countries to come up you need to give them more games." Tikolo, asked if he would play in a fifth World Cup in 2011 when the tournament will be staged in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, said: "That's a tough one. We'll see how my body goes. "But I still want to play for Kenya for the next few years and see this team grow into a good unit." And he insisted he took little personal satisfaction from his innings against England, his 20th fifty in 94 matches at this level.