4 Apr 2011

Southee sneaks into World Cup tournament team

6:45 am on 4 April 2011

The Black Caps paceman Tim Southee is the sole New Zealander to make the official tournament team of the 2011 cricket World Cup.

Southee was named as 12th man after taking 18 wickets in 8 matches on the subcontinent.

All-rounder Shane Watson is the only Australian to make the team which is unsurprisingly dominated by champions India and runners-up Sri Lanka, who contribute seven players to the side.

Sri Lanka skipper Kumar Sangakkara is the captain of the team and is joined in the side by compatriots Tillakaratne Dilshan, Mahela Jayawardena and spin-bowling great Muttiah Muralidaran.

Indian stars Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh and Zaheer Khan were the trio named by the five-man selection panel from the winning side.

South African duo AB de Villiers and Dale Steyn earned nods despite their team's quarter-final exit while Pakistan skipper Shahid Afridi was also named, while England, the West Indies and Bangladesh all failed to get a representative.

The Indian all-rounder Singh, was named man-of-the-tournament for scoring 362 runs and taking 15 wickets.

ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 team of the tournament (in batting order):

Sachin Tendulkar (India), Tillakaratne Dilshan (Sri Lanka), Kumar Sangakkara (Sri Lanka, WK and captain), Mahela Jayawardena (Sri Lanka), AB de Villiers (South Africa), Yuvraj Singh (India), Shane Watson (Australia), Shahid Afridi (Pakistan), Dale Steyn (South Africa), Zaheer Khan (India), Muttiah Muralidaran (Sri Lanka). 12th man: Tim Southee (New Zealand).