India have entered the semi-finals of the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy after registering a comfortable eight-wicket win over South Africa at the Kennington Oval, London on Sunday.
The much-awaited contest, which was a virtual quarter-final, failed to live up to expectations as India put in a dominant display while South Africa will have to go back to the drawing board after failing in another ICC tournament.
The Proteas, after being put into bat, got off to a solid enough start with Quinton de Kock (53 off 72 balls) and Hashim Amla (35 off 54 balls) adding 76 runs for the opening wicket.
The turning point of the match came in the 29th over of South Africa’s innings when AB de Villiers (16 off 12 balls) and Faf du Plessis (36 off 50 balls) misjudged a run and the former was found short of the crease despite putting in a full-length dive.
In the very next over, there was another run-out, one which du Plessis and David Miller (1 off 5 balls) will never want to re-visit. Confusion between the two saw both batsmen end up at the same end with Miller having to make his way back to the pavilion.
South Africa never really recovered from there, getting bowled out for 191 as they lost their last eight wickets for 51 runs in an extraordinary batting collapse.
The wickets were spread among the Indian bowlers, with pacers Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah accounting for two scalps each while Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, and Hardik Pandya picked up a wicket apiece.
Chasing 192, India lost the wicket of Rohit Sharma (12 off 20) early as the right-handed opener was caught behind as he attempted to go for a big shot off Morne Morkel’s bowling. There wasn’t much concern for the Men in Blue though, as Shikhar Dhawan (78 off 83 balls) and Virat Kohli (76* off 101) put on a 128-run second wicket partnership.
This was Dhawan’s third 50+ score in this edition of the competition and is now the top run-scorer. On the other hand, Indian captain Kohli – despite an edgy start – brought up his second half-century in three matches as India completed the win with as many as 12 overs remaining.
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