Men in Blue to meet Bangla tigers in Champions Trophy semifinals
London: Defending champions India outclassed South Africa in all departments of the game to enter the semifinals of the ICC Champions Trophy with a comprehensive eight-wicket victory here Sunday.
India will meet Bangladesh in the semifinals in Birmingham, Thursday. The Proteas lived up to their ‘Perennial Chokers’ tag in a virtual quarterfinal clash that turned out to be a thoroughly one-sided encounter.
Shikhar Dhawan (78, 83b, 12×4, 1×6) and skipper Virat Kohli (76, 101b, 7×4, 1×6) made it look like a walk in the park as India chased down a target of 192 in only 38 overs.
On a day when it mattered the most, India brought their game to the fore while AB de Villiers’ men wilted under pressure, as it has been with them in high-stakes games. The Indian bowling was disciplined, the fielding exceptional with three run-outs, and then there was a professional batting performance.
Earlier, an impressive bowling performance that was complemented by fantastic fielding effort, saw the holders skittle out South Africa for a paltry 191 in 44.3 overs after winning the toss.
It was yet another embarrassing batting collapse after the openers put on 76 runs. The world’s number one team lost the last eight wickets for 51 runs after being comfortably placed at 116 for one at one stage. Two run-outs of skipper AB de Villiers (16) and David Miller (1) within the space of six deliveries triggered the slide from which they could never recover.
India took control of the match in the second powerplay, in which South Africa managed only 143 runs, losing six wickets in the process. After a poor match against Sri Lanka, Ravindra Jadeja (1/39) was at his accurate best, stifling the runs in those middle overs in tandem with comeback man Ravichandran Ashwin (1/43). Man of the Match Jasprit Bumrah (2/28) was on target with his block hole deliveries and cleverly mixed short balls, which did the trick.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar (2/22) was on a hat-trick as he not only polished off the tail, but also maintained a brilliant channel outside the off-stump, making life difficult for the top-order batsmen. Even Hardik Pandya (1/52) gave a much better account of himself, bowling as many as 29 dot balls and also got Faf du Plessis (36, 50b, 1×4) to drag one back onto his stumps.
Ashwin and Jadeja may not have got too many wickets but removed openers Hashim Amla (35, 54b, 3×4, 1×6) and Quinton de Kock (53, 72 b, 4×4) after a sedate start.
Dhawan surpasses Sachin
Shikhar Dhawan surpassed Indian batting great Sachin Tendulkar as the fastest to reach 1000 runs in ICC ODI tournaments. Dhawan took 16 matches to reach the landmark. Sachin had reached the landmark after 18 matches. Dhawan also levelled himself with former Indian batting greats Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid in most 50s in Champions Trophy. Indian trio have six 50s each to their names.
