After defeating England by seven wickets to win Group B here on Saturday, South Africa easily advanced to the Champions Trophy semifinals. England chose to bat and was bowled out for 179 in 38.2 overs by South Africa's disciplined bowlers. The Proteas easily chased down the modest target in 29.1 overs to finish with five points, knowing that it would guarantee their place in the semifinals by the end of the innings. In the semifinals, they will now play the Group A runners-up. On Sunday, India and New Zealand will compete for Group A spots in Dubai.
Jos Buttler after the loss
The England team failed to step up with the bat yet again, in Jos Buttler's final match as the white-ball captain. After the match, Buttler opened up on how disappointing the performance was. However, now they have to see where cricket takes them and also expressed confidence that Brendon McCillum and other top authorities will formulate a plan forward from here.
"It was really a disappointing performance, we were short of our mark today, so really disappointing. A decent surface, a little bit slow and two-paced, Duckett got us into a nice position but we couldn't take advantage of that. I don't know to be honest, as a whole group, we are not getting the results and that takes away the confidence from us. So, it's a change of scene and we have to see where cricket takes us," said Buttler in the post-match presentation.
"Of course, there is no doubt, the talent is there, we have all the elements to put together a great side, I'm sure Brendon and the guys at the top will formulate some plans and it's up to the individuals as well to put their mark and assure that the team gets to where it wants to be. It was a fantastic time to be a world-cup winning captain and that was my best day in my captaincy tenure. Joe has been a shining light and a great example for us. After relinquishing his captaincy, he has played brilliantly and hopefully, I can follow in his footsteps," he added.
In their most recent Champions Trophy match, England just did not have enough runs to hold off a formidable batting order. And that was due to their awful performance during the first inning of the game, where they were once more hit by their own careless shots. In an interview with Ian Award on Sky Sports, former England cricketer Michael Atherton chastised the team for their terrible shot choices. They just ran out of players who could play a steady innings and lead England to a winning total in every game, according to Atherton, who also claimed that most of the England batters were in poor form going into the competition.
As players like Harry Brook and Liam Livingstone lost their wickets on Saturday due to reckless middle-order shots, Aherton's remarks were also correct. With 30 overs remaining in the match, both Livingstone and Brook had an opportunity to demonstrate their abilities by playing a lengthy innings. Nevertheless, within the first 25 overs of the match, England's bottom middle-order was exposed as two contenders for the future captaincy gave up their wickets to Keshav Maharaj. With a maximum score of 37 from 44 balls on Saturday, Joe Root essentially summed up the situation for England, who were bowled out in just 38.2 overs.
With three wickets at the beginning of the innings, Marco Jansen was the standout bowler for South Africa. Wiaan Mulder finished the innings with three wickets, while Kehshav Maharaj dominated the middle overs with a 10-1-35-2 performance.' With the victory, South Africa, who led Group B with an incredible Net Run Rate of +2.395, advanced to the semi-finals. On Sunday, March 2, they will play the losers of the match between India and New Zealand.
