The Proteas. Photo: Heads Tractor
The Proteas made a depressing exit from the ICC Champions Trophy Tournament on Wednesday.
England outplayed them by seven wickets with almost 13 overs to spare in their semi-final encounter at The Oval in London.
The Proteas were never in the game after collapsing to 80/8 after being put into bat and, in spite of a South African record ODI ninth-wicket partnership of 95 between David Miller (56 not out off 51 balls) and Rory Kleinveldt (a career best 43), their final total of 175 was way short of par.
There were more than 11 overs left unbowled at the end of the Proteas innings and the only way back into the match was to bowl England out.
There was a brief period of hope when Chris Morris and Kleinveldt dismissed both the England openers in the first 11 overs but that was as far as it got as Jonathan Trott, with a run-a-ball unbeaten innings of 80, and the impressive young Joe Root added 105 for the third wicket.
By the time Root was out the match was totally out of the Proteas reach.
The toss was an important one for England to win and it was inevitable that the Proteas would lose a few wickets up front under good bowling conditions.
AB de Villiers London 19 June – a disappointed AB de Villiers spoke to the media after the Proteas’ exit from the ICC Champions Trophy on Wednesday. The Proteas will depart for South Africa in various groups on Thursday, and details of the arrival press conference back in South Africa will be announced in due course.
