The ICC Champions Trophy has ended abruplty for South Africa, as ill-favoured England finished off what Sri Lanka started. The South African team were out-played in 2 out of their three group games in the Champions trophy, and certainly didn't deserve to move on to the semi-finals. Poor bowling and a lack of partnerships while batting ultimately led to South Africa's demise.
Unfortunately sometimes these things happen in sport, it is just unfortunate that they always happen to South Africa in major tournaments. It could be detrimental to the tournament, as interest in 50 over cricket is dwindling and the Champions Trophy has come into criticism before because of a lack of interest. With the hosts exiting the tournament at the earliest possible stage may make it very tough for promoters to get fans in the stadiums from now on.
This review of England beating South Africa can be found on the official website of the ICC Champions Trophy.
Source: Yahoo Cricket
England moved into the semi-finals of the ICC Champions Trophy and knocked South Africa out of the tournament after a 22-run win at Centurion.
After winning the toss and batting first, openers Andrew Strauss and Joe Denly fell in quick succession, before England's Owais Shah (98) and Paul Collingwood (82) added an outstanding third wicket partnership of 163.
Shah was particularly aggressive, hitting six sixes in his innings, some of which easily cleared the boundaries, with South Africa's usually reliable spinners unable to cope with his power hitting.
Eoin Morgan then came in and played one of the innings of the tournament, smashing 67 off just 34 balls, including five sixes, to help England to 323-8 which was the second highest total in the history of the competition.
In reply, Graeme Smith played one of the greatest innings of his career, making his highest ODI score of 141, but nobody else could join him in making a major contribution with James Anderson bowling an outstanding spell of 3-42, with Stuart Broad also claiming 3-67.
