South Africa easily defeated England by 7 wickets in the crucial match of the Champions Trophy and reached the first position in Group ‘B’.
England were all out for 179 runs, their lowest total in the ongoing event, against South Africa in the match played at the National Bank Stadium in Karachi, giving the Protease a target of 180 runs to win, which they achieved in the 30th over for the loss of 3 wickets. South Africa has also qualified for the semi-finals.
Marco Johnson, who took 3 wickets for 39 runs and 3 catches for the Protease, was adjudged the man of the match. Protease batsman Rossi van der Dussen played an unbeaten inning of 72 runs with 3 sixes and 6 fours, while Henrik Klaasen stood out with 64 runs, in addition to Ryan Rickelton scoring 27 and David Miller scoring 7 runs. England’s Jofra Archer took 2 wickets, and Adil Rashid took one wicket.
Earlier, in the match being played at the National Bank Stadium in Karachi, English captain Jos Buttler won the toss and elected to bat, which proved unsuccessful.
England suffered their first loss for just 9 runs when Salt returned to the pavilion after scoring 8 runs; the second and third wickets fell for 20 runs and 37 runs, respectively, with half of the England team having returned to the pavilion for a total of 103 runs.
Root top-scored for England with 37 runs, while Jofra Archer scored 25, Ben Duckett 24, captain Buttler 21, Harry Brook 19, and Overton 11 runs. The English team’s wickets continued to fall intermittently, and the entire team was dismissed for 179 runs in the 39th over, setting the Protease a target of 180 runs to win.
For South Africa, Marco Johnson and Wien Mulder took 3 wickets each, while Keshav Maharaj took 2, Ngidi and Rabada took one wicket each.After winning the toss, Jos Buttler said, “The wicket looks good, and there are some cracks on it.”
Regarding his decision to step down from the captaincy, he said, “I felt it was the right time for me, and I made this decision on my own without waiting for any decision, and now it’s time to move on. “He said, “I am proud to captain the team for the last time, and I want to step down from the captaincy with a good performance.”
Jos Buttler said that Saqib Mahmood has been included in the team for today’s match in place of Mark Wood. South African captain Aiden Markram, who is leading the team due to Temba Bavuma’s illness, said that Tony de Zorze is also ill, so Tristan Stubbs has been included in the team in his place.
He said, “It will be a pleasure to chase the target against a strong team like England.”
