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All's well that ends well and, thanks to Steve Waugh's magnificence and Herschelle Gibbs' costly generosity, the three best teams have made it through to the World Cup semifinals.

If the quartet was not decided until the fourth ball of the final over of the final Super Sixes match at Headingley on Sunday, when Waugh edged Australia's winning runs against South Africa and Gibbs was left to rue his carelessness in dropping him at 56, it simply heightened the excitement.

It is what the tournament as a whole needed. South Africa, Australia and Pakistan, in that order, were the favourites from the start and have justified the assessment.

It also vindicated the new format that had the stated aim of carrying the most consistent teams into the semifinals although it did not justify the points allocation.

It was clearly an anamoly that Zimbabwe would have been in the last four with only three first-round wins to their name, while Australia, had they been beaten by South Africa on Sunday, would not, in spite of five overall victories - three in the first round and two in the Super Sixes.

New Zealand, who made it into the last four with four victories overall, were, as always, underestimated outsiders. Their doggedness and spirit carried them through, just as it did in three previous World Cups.

Zimbabwe were the surprise packet this time, as Sri Lanka were in 1996, but not as strong and certainly not as uninhibited and innovative. Their first-round wins over India and South Africa, when they were superior on the day, carried them into Super Sixes and were almost enough to get them into the semis.

Out of place

As enthusiastic and improved as they were, they would have been out of place in such an elevated position.

The West Indies and England, above both New Zealand and Zimbabwe in the bookmakers' early odds, had no cause to gripe at their premature demises.

Neither was good enough and, certainly in the West Indies case, committed enough.

Inevitably, all the semifinalists had hiccups along the way.

Only the West Indies in 1975, the first, and Sri Lanka last time won the Cup with a 100 per cent record, and even Sri Lanka's was artificial as Australia and the West Indies, uncertain of the security, would not venture into Colombo for their first-round matches.

South Africa, seemingly unbeatable in every other match, were thoroughly outplayed by the Zimbabweans, their plucky neighbours, for their only reversal in the first round and lost a battle of nerves against Waugh and Australia on Sunday when, suddenly, they looked shattered and vulnerable in the field.

Australia were the ones who were disjointed at the start. It was said their tough tour of the West Indies had taken its toll and that Steve Waugh's captaincy was too negative.

They went down to New Zealand and Pakistan in their second and third group matches and only squeezed into the Super Sixes by trouncing the West Indies. Even then, they did not look likely champions and were told as much by their Press and by their former players turned television critics.

Waugh would have known the criticism to be justified and he used it as a stimulus. Now Australia face South Africa again on Thursday for a place in the final with five consecutive wins to their account. No other team in the tournament has strung together such a sequence.

Stereotype

Pakistan have been, well, Pakistan. They field some of the most exciting and talented cricketers on earth who can, overnight, become the most ragged and unpredictable. If it is a stereotype it has not developed without cause.

They overpowered the West Indies, New Zealand and Australia in the first round, yet succumbed to Bangladesh, a result that caused raised eyebrows for more reasons than one.

In the Super Sixes, they released a stranglehold on South Africa and then fell to their great rivals India, a cup final in itself.

So they went to the Oval last Friday with three successive defeats and an early exit from the tournament at the back of their minds. As they can, they turned it on, crushing Zimbabwe by the most resounding margin of the tournament, 147 runs.

Not only did it guarantee them their spot in the last four where they will meet New Zealand at Old Trafford tomorrow - but there was the further satisfaction that the result also meant India's elimination.

They comfortably overcame the New Zealanders in the first round but they are likely to find altogether tougher opposition second time round.

The New Zealanders showed their fighting qualities to best advantage with their delayed victory over India in the gloaming at Nottingham on Saturday.

It was a match they had to win to move on and tomorrow's will be the same.

In such situations, they tend to make the most of their teamwork and their limited talent.

It is, for good reason, theirs is the least considered of the semifinals. Australia and South Africa contested such an epic on Sunday that the sequel is attracting all the attention. The understated New Zealanders like it that way.