By Aditi S Bade
With Jos Buttler’s white-ball captaincy for England coming to an end, he opted to bat first before the team crashed within the very first couple of balls of the innings. South African pacer Marco Jansen delivered a fiery opening spell, dismantling England’s top order and reducing them to 37 for 3 by the seventh over. Jansen’s stormy performance, returning figures of 3 for 39, applied early pressure.
However, Joe Root with his much-cautious anchoring made only 37 before his wicket at the hands of Wiaan Mulder, who finished with figures of 3 for 25, left the already irretrievable England the picture of woeful ruin. The middle and lower orders failed miserably in building up the momentum leading them to make under 38.2 overs an almost cricketing low total of 179 runs-the tournament’s lowest team total.
Composed and dominant, South Africa chased down a smalIn a spectacular performance, South Africa managed to qualify for the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy semi-finals after defeating England by seven wickets in Karachi on March 1, 2025. The win not only banged down the doors to knock-outs for the Proteas but also sent off England without any fight as it exited the tournament with zero wins in the group stage.
l target. The early loss of Quinton de Kock as the opening batsman was compensated by a brilliant partnership orchestrated by Rassie van der Dussen and Heinrich Klaasen. Van der Dussen ended at an imposing 72 not out while Klaasen amassed a brisk 64. Their partnership of 127 runs for the third wicket ensured that South Africa made the target comfortably, with 125 balls in hand.
The victory has placed South Africa very firmly atop Group B, thereby ensuring a semi-final against the Group A runner-up, which could either be India, Australia, or New Zealand. The last Group stage encounter between India and New Zealand scheduled in Dubai will determine the respective semifinal pairings.
England have suffered perhaps the most in terms of a low point in the history of their last cricketing years, not getting even one win in the group stage of this tournament. Added to that was the announcement of Jos Buttler as the captain resigning from the post before the match-the end of what is likely to be seen as an era and the beginning of a phase of rebuilding for English white-ball cricket.
As South Africa goes ahead, they will be observing the fitness of its star players, since interim captain Aiden Markram also suffered from a hamstring strain in the match, Josh Bavuma is also ill as Tony de Zorzi, and that will mean a wait-and-see. Soon, the team hopes these players will recover well before the semi-finals to maintain the momentum going into the tournament.