Incredible scenes as cricket World Cup invaded by bees

A WEEK after an upset win over England that tilted the Cricket World Cup axis, Dimuth Karunaratne and his Sri Lankans have been  trounced by South Africa.

The South Africans were already out of semi-final contention, and their nine-wicket win on Friday seriously dented Sri Lanka's chances of making the play-off stages, too.

There was a bit of a buzz for a while in the first of the tournament games at Durham, but it didn't last long. A swarm of bees halted the match in the 48th over.

All of the South African fielders, the Sri Lankan batsmen and both umpires went to ground, face down, to avoid any stings.

It wasn't the first time or place, South Africa captain Faf du Plessis recollected, that a South Africa-Sri Lanka game had been interrupted by bees.

"I remember the last time - it was at Johannesburg against Sri Lanka, the same thing happened," he said.

"It is very funny. Looks like someone's just had a machine-gun through all the players on the field and everyone is down on the ground!

"Yeah, you are not brave enough when there is a swarm of bees flying. I'm brave, but not that brave."

Du Plessis (96 not out) and Hashim Amla (80 not out) guided South Africa to victory after Sri Lanka set a target of 204.