South Africa decimate England to march into semi-finals

South Africa 181 for 3 (Van der Dussen 72*, Klaasen 64, Archer 2-55) beat England 179 (Root 37, Archer 25, Mulder 3-25, Jansen 3-39) by seven wickets

After choosing to bat first in Karachi, the most run-laden venue of the event, England played like a side who would rather not. They were bowled out for the lowest total of this Champions Trophy and gifted South Africa wickets in a display of carefree and sometimes reckless strokeplay. South Africa were hit by both illness and injury-enforced absences and were not always at their best, but they caught particularly well in the field, paced their chase perfectly, and have plenty of positives to take into the knockouts.

Ben Duckett picked up from where Salt left off and scored two boundaries in three balls off Lungi Ngidi but Jamie Smith repeated Salt’s mistake and tamely pulled Jansen to Markam at mid-on. Duckett settled as he was fed balls on the pads but when he tried to clip Jansen fine, he got a leading edge back to South Africa’s destroyer-in-chief. England were 37 for 3 in the seventh over.

That could have become 38 for 4 when Joe Root cut Kagiso Rabada to backward point and though Mulder got both hands to it, he could not hold on. Root went on to nail the drive and the pull and formed a 62-run stand with a confident-looking Harry Brook and England were building solidly. But they could not keep Jansen out of the game. When Brook belted Maharaj over midwicket, Jansen ran to his right from long-on and slid on his knees to take a wonder-catch. Four balls later, Root was bowled when he missed a leg-side flick off Mulder and the ball hit his back pad on its way onto the stumps.

At that stage, Buttler, playing his last innings as England captain, had only faced a ball and had a big job on his hands. He received little help from Liam Livingstone who charged down the track to meet a Maharaj ball but South Africa’s left-arm spinner saw him coming, tossed it up and had him stumped. Livingstone has only made more than 20 runs once in his last seven innings.

By then, England’s effort looked mostly a case of marking time while South Africa stayed focused on searching for wickets. Rabada was brought back at the halfway stage. He beat Jamie Overton first up, then kept him in check by forcing a defensive shot and then had him caught at mid-on as the batter tried to attack. He looked to whip Rabada over the leg side but chipped the ball towards mid-on where Ngidi ran back and took a one-handed stunner as he hit the ground.

South Africa continued to catch well: Jansen took a low catch at midwicket to see the end of Jofra Archer and Maharaj made a tumbling grab at mid-off to end Buttler’s innings on 21 and give Ngidi his 100th ODI wicket. England were bowled out in the 39th over, and took South Africa’s concerns about a slow over rate with them.

At that stage, South Africa’s semi-final qualification was assured because even if they lost the match, their net run rate could not dip below Afghanistan’s. That took pressure off the chase but not necessarily off South Africa’s batters, who all wanted runs ahead of an important week. Tristan Stubbs, playing his ninth ODI and first in an ICC event, didn’t get any as he tried to play an Archer ball late but deflected it onto his stumps.

Though his first over lasted ten balls as he struggled to find his line, Archer quickly improved and delivered the rest of his opening spell with good pace and better accuracy. He was rewarded with a second wicket, too, when Ryan Rickelton, who looked confident in his 25-ball 27, was bowled by a delivery that nipped back into him and smashed into middle stump.

From there, it was all South Africa. While van der Dussen appeared at times frustrated by his slower scoring rate than Klaasen’s, the pair complemented each other well. Van der Dussen scored largely through the leg side while six of Klaasen’s 11 fours came through the covers. Klaasen reached his fifty with one of those shots off the 41st ball he faced. It was his fifth successive half-century in the format, which is the joint-most for South Africa. Van der Dussen’s came off 72 balls as he rocked back to send Adil Rashid through square leg and bring up a second fifty in the competition. Klaasen departed when he tried to smash Rashid over fine leg but outside-edged to short third. David Miller hit the winning runs off the second ball he faced when he smoked Livingstone over the sightscreen for six.

This is the third successive tournament for which South Africa have qualified for the knockouts, after the 2023 ODI World Cup and 2024 T20 World Cup. Their semi-final opposition and venue will only be confirmed after the match between India and New Zealand on Sunday. They will play the loser of that match either in Dubai on Tuesday (if it’s India) or Lahore on Wednesday (if it’s New Zealand).