Champions Trophy 2017: India Sail Into The Semis As South Africa Surrender Meekly

Jun 11, 2017 at 9:40 PM

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Champions Trophy 2017: India Sail Into The Semis As South Africa Surrender Meekly

After all the drama that served as the build-up for today’s fixture, the Champions Trophy 2017 finally got its third semi-finalist as India thumped South Africa in an effortless fashion to defeat them by 8 wickets at the KIA Oval, London.

Today’s game saw the classic ‘nerf’ and ‘buff’ factors determining the fate of both the teams. As they say in video game terminology, the power ability of the one team decreased drastically while the other became stronger than normal.

The team which was in the nerf situation today was South Africa, who despite all the star power and quality in their side failed to put a respectable act together.

India was in an improved contrasting situation and saw their bowling power increase to such levels, they restricted South Africa to just 191 after asking them to bat first. This performance comes just a couple of days after the same bowling attack was demoralised by two young Sri Lanka batsmen.

The weather seemed fine and all eyes were on the two teams. It was the virtual quarterfinal after all. Both the skippers ensured that the best lineup took the field today. As expected Ravichandran Ashwin was brought in at the cost of Umesh Yadav. The left-handers in the Proteas side were in the spotlight after this announcement. AB de Villiers swapped the underperforming Wayne Parnell for Andile Phelukwayo.

The manner in which both the South African openers, Hashim Amla and Quinton de Kock started off, it appeared the Proteas were well-prepared. However, that was just a misunderstanding.

After putting up 76 for the opening wicket, Ashwin foxed Amla with a straighter one to get him stumped behind. Faf Du Plessis and De Kock added 40 runs between them for the 2nd wicket to mildly compensate the loss of Amla. But, left arm spinner Jadeja brought the match turning breakthrough.

In the 25th over, Jaddu’s quicker one crashed onto the off stump of De Kock and brought a huge respite to the Indians. The dangerously growing partnership was finally broken and also triggered a quick collapse.

From being 116 for 2, at the time De Kock returned to the pavilion at the score of 53, South Africa managed just 75 runs for the loss of 8 wickets.

Poor decisions hampered them badly. The lack of understanding while running between the wickets and swift hands of former skipper MS Dhoni made life tough for the batting side as run-outs riddled South Africa completely.

Skipper De Villiers and David Miller were runout in the 29th and the 30th overs respectively. Faf du Plessis was cleaned up by Pandya. Bumrah joined the party and pocketed the wickets of Morris and Phelukwayo in short successions. Tail-enders Rabada and Morkel surrendered to Bhuvneshwar Kumar while Imran Tahir was the last victim of a runout today, bringing an end to the batting misery.

MS Dhoni had a field day today and was involved in 4 dismissals. Bhuvneshwar Kumar snapped 2/23, Jasprit Bumrah took 2/28 while Ashwin, Jadeja and Pandya shared a wicket each. Together this effort ensured that the batsmen had an easy target to chase.

India did not commit any blunder and approached the chase brilliantly. The failure of Rohit Sharma, who lost his wicket for mere 12 runs, was the only the exception.

Shikhar Dhawan was once again in full flow and went on to register a record-breaking half-century. His knock of 78 off 83 balls made him the fastest to the 1000 runs mark in ICC ODI tournaments. He took just 16 innings as opposed to the previous record holder Sachin Tendulkar who required 18 innings to reach the landmark. The left-hander also became the first Indian batsman to complete three consecutive fifties in Champions Trophy.

Together with skipper Virat Kohli, he added 128 runs for the 2nd wicket before departing in the 25th over. Kohli waited until the end and finished unbeaten at 76 from 101 deliveries when Yuvraj Singh wrapped off the game with a six. The target was knocked out with 12 overs to spare.

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