India makes it to the semi-finals of Champions Trophy, defeating South Africa

June 12, 2017: After giving a spectacular bowling display, India pressed the accelerator on their chase for the Champions Trophy to defeat South Africa on June 11, Sunday, thus entering the semifinals.

Defending champions India was surgical and precise in their must win Champions Trophy final Group B match.

They made the most of South Africa’s panicky batting and poor running between the wickets to get them all out for 191.

Virat Kohli 76 (101 balls, 7 fours, 1 six) and Shikhar Dhawan 78 (83 balls, 12 fours, 1 six) put the final nails in the coffin and went on to post a comfortable eight-wicket win.

India is set to be on the top of Group B after the Sri Lanka versus Pakistan game on Monday. They will have their semi-finals face-off with Bangladesh in Birmingham on Thursday.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar (2/23) and Jasprit Bumrah (2/28) gave a disciplined opening spell to defend Kohli’s decision to bowl first. Conscious of Quinton de Kock’s superb form against India, the pacers did well to maintain a tight line and length. Amla, as usual, tried to lay the foundation for South Africa, only to realize that runs have dried up.

In spite of not having lost any wickets, South Africa was under heavy pressure to take risks and keep the runs coming.

Off-spinner R Ashwin, who replaced Umesh Yadav for the game, was finally able to break the opening stand by picking the wicket of Amla (35, 54 balls). This made South Africa get back into its shell and Indians were able to tighten their grip on the match.

Ravindra Jadeja was the second bowler to strike for India when he had Quinton de Kock (53, 72 balls, 4 fours) bowled on off-stump. The job was left to Faf du Plessis and A B de Villiers After Quinton's dismissal in the 25th over. Both these batsmen looked solid at the start but things went awry for South Africa in the 28th over when de Villiers got run out, thanks to some electrifying fielding from Hardik Pandya.

South Africa swiftly fell to 142/4 from 140/3 owing to their awful running between the wickets. After cutting the ball, Du Plessis called for a single.

David Miller did respond swiftly but Du Plessis paused a bit and this let to terrible mix-up. Both the batsmen were on the same end and Kohli took off the bails.

From here on, there were no signs of resurrection for South Africa, as wickets started falling in a hurry.

The end arrived for South African batting lineup when Du Plessis hit a Pandya off-cutter onto the stumps in the 34th over.

The last eight wickets of South Africa had fallen for 51 runs and India knew that they are close to a semifinal berth.

South African fast bowlers did try to pull off something special. But they had no answers for Kohli and Dhawan, who played a solid knock before forging ahead to victory.

Photos Courtesy Getty