South Africa Triumph, De Villiers Falls for 99 and More from Day 27

South Africa bounced back to winning ways in Thursday's World Cup action, beating United Arab Emirates by 146 runs in Wellington, New Zealand.

AB de Villiers fell agonisingly short of yet another ODI century, South Africa's skipper dismissed for 99 in his team's innings of 341 for six.

Still, their final total at the Westpac Stadium always looked to be far too many for UAE to chase down, and so it proved.

Swapnil Patel made an unbeaten 57, but two wickets apiece for Morne Morkel, Vernon Philander and that man De Villiers saw the minnows bowled out for 195.

The victory means South Africa—who had been beaten by Pakistan in their previous outing—finish their campaign in Group B with four wins from six matches.

They are set to finish in second place, meaning Sri Lanka are their most likely quarter-final opponents.

UAE, meanwhile, still have one game to go, against West Indies on Sunday, before they head home.

Shot of the day

De Villiers added to his tally of sixes in his innings, four more of them taking his total in the tournament to 20:

However, he did not play the pick of the shots during the match.

That honour goes to UAE's Mohammad Naveed after he had the audacity to launch Dale Steyn over the rope at deep mid-wicket.

Naveed—who had already added four runs to the total off his helmet after wearing a bouncer from Philander—shuffled outside of the line, and with Steyn following him, found a delivery right in his swing arc.

He duly dispatched it over the boundary for a six that travelled a long, long way. Steyn, as you would expect, was not amused.

"

HUGE! Mohammad Naveed takes full toll of Steyn with a big swipe on leg side! It travels 93 metres! What a shot! #UAE 154-6 #SAvUAE

— Cricket World Cup (@cricketworldcup) March 12, 2015"

Delivery of the day

Amjad Javed produced a clever slower ball to dismiss Quinton de Kock, albeit that the batsman wouldn't have actually been given out had it not been for the assistance of technology.

The off-cutter had De Kock pushing far too early outside his off stump, resulting in a clear edge through to wicketkeeper Saqlain Haider behind the stumps.

Umpire Steve Davis, though, seemed to be the only man who didn't hear the nick.

UAE quickly called for a review and, after instruction from the third umpire, Davis had to change his original decision.

The wicket actually put the struggling De Kock out of his misery—he had laboured for 45 balls to reach 26, still comfortably his highest score of the World Cup campaign so far.

Twitter, as you might expect, was not too sympathetic to Davis' plight:

Catch of the day

You can take your pick from two great diving efforts by Rilee Rossouw.

UAE opener Andri Berenger was tucked up by a short delivery from Morkel and Rossouw made good ground from gully to slide forward and take the ball with his left hand.

He wasn't done there, though.

Saqlain sent a pull shot spiralling into the air out towards deep mid-wicket off the bowling of De Villiers.

Rossouw once again reacted quickly, allowing him to eat up the ground before diving forward again to cling on, this time with the ball ending up in his right hand.

A hurdle to clear

David Miller decided to enter the field of play like a WWE wrestler when it was his turn to bat:

AB the superhero

Now De Villiers is good, there's no doubting that, but have Royal Challengers Bangalore gone a little over the top here?

Plus, there's definitely no way he can come out to bat with that shield.

Friday at the World Cup

There are two matches in Group A on Friday.

New Zealand are already certain to finish on top of the pool, but opponents Bangladesh know a win at Seddon Park, Hamilton, would mean they do not have to face India in the next stage of the tournament.

The other fixture sees England conclude their miserable campaign with a potential banana skin against Afghanistan at the SCG in Sydney, Australia.

As if defeat to Bangladesh in Adelaide wasn't bad enough, Eoin Morgan's side will look to avoid suffering any further embarrassment before boarding the plane home.