South Africa choked again at the big stage, this time the Proteas went down to New Zealand by 50 runs in the Champions Torphy 2025 semifinal. Mitchell Santner-led New Zealand delivered an impressive performance against South Africa to storm into the Champions Trophy final. They will now take on Team India in the title clash on March 9 at the Dubai International Stadium. South Africa were handed a challenging task of chasing the highest-ever total in Champions Trophy history, i.e 362 runs. However, they wilted under pressure and finally surrendered to New Zealand.
The foundation of New Zealand's win was laid by outstanding centuries from Rachin Ravindra (108) and Kane Williamson (102), which propelled them to a formidable total of 362 runs at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore.
Temba Bavuma blames Rassie Van Der Dussen for South Africa's defeat against New Zealand
In response, New Zealand's bowling attack effectively contained South Africa, restricting them to 312/9. Santner, captaining in his inaugural ICC tournament, demonstrated astute leadership, guiding his team to a comprehensive win. Despite a valiant century from David Miller (100 off 67) in the closing overs, South Africa were unable to overcome New Zealand's dominant performance.
Meanwhile, South Africa captain Temba Bavuma rued team's defeat against New Zealand. He said South Africa needed Rassie Van Der Dussen to go on and emulate what Kane Williamson and Rachin Ravindra did for New Zealand. Rassie Van Der Dussen ended up scoring 69 off 66 balls before falling prey to Mitchell Santner. South Africa have a history of crashing at the bigger stage, and the recent example is T20 World Cup 2024 where they lost to India which denied them the first major ICC trophy.
"I do think it was above-par. Probably if it was 350, we would have backed ourselves to chase the score. We had one or two partnerships today but we needed Rassie to go on and emulate what two of their batters did. They really put us under pressure from the word-go, the way they were able to pierce the off-side at the start and the way they played in the middle overs. Kudos to them, credit to their batters, Rachin and Williamson and even the batters who came in, Mitchell and Phillips," Bavuma said in the post-match presentation.
"We were 125/1 and me and Rassie were still batting. Unfortunately, we weren't able to set that foundation for them. A bit of unfortunate dismissal for me and Rassie and we left too much for them in the end. Like I said in the beginning, like I mentioned that were were 125/1, we had to be more decisive, not give an opportunity for the oppositon to come back and being ruthless. We needed to take care of the key moments in the game," Bavuma added.
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