India made it to the semi-finals of the ICC Champions Trophy after their eight-wicket win over South Africa on Sunday.
For South Africa, it was another disappointment in a major tournament as they have now been eliminated after finishing the group stages with just two points from three games.
Here’s what we learned from the match.
The Indian players did not need to look any further than their captain Virat Kohli to get fired up.
Ever since he won the toss and decided to bowl first, Kohli believed his bowling pack can restrict the South Africans and he executed his plans to perfection.
He was full of energy, hurling himself at every ball that came his way and egged his bowlers and fielders throughout.
He continued to back the five-bowler theory and even the odd change of replacing Umesh Yadav with Ravichandran Ashwin proved fruitful.
More importantly, he did not allow the South African batsmen to settle by setting attacking fields and his bowling changes were spot on, fetching him rich dividends.
He was equally defiant while batting despite struggling with his off-side shots. He hung in gamely and finished unbeaten on 76 to complete a hugely satisfying day for his team.
This is as complete a bowling performance as any you will see from India. And very well led, you must say, by @imVkohli
— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) June 11, 2017
Despite playing his first one-day international match in five months, Ravichandran Ashwin showed no signs of rustiness adapting well to the conditions.
He relied on the pitch more and did not indulge in anything fancy. He mixed up the slower deliveries well and that caused a lot of concern for the batsmen as some skidded through while a few others turned sharply.
It was one such ball that gave the breakthrough India were desperately seeking when South Africa’s leading run-getter in the tournament Hashim Amla shaped up for a cut but ended up edging to MS Dhoni.
Another highlight of his bowling was that he did not allow the batsmen to hit him straight and all the four boundaries that he conceded were largely square or behind the wickets.
Although he conceded 43 runs in his 10 overs he also bowled 27 dot balls. With his display at the Oval, Ashwin has forced his way in and it would be a travesty of justice if he is kept out in any future games.
India will be encouraged at the manner in which Bhuvneshwar Kumar has progressed to become the team’s leading bowler. Essentially a swing bowler, the 27-year-old is quite methodic in his approach.
The most admirable quality is his adaptability to English conditions where the placid pitches have made swing bowling redundant. Bhuvneshwar has relied on the movement off the pitch, maintained a disciplined line and hit the right areas.
![Bhuvneshwar (R) [Getty Images]](https://sport360.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Bhuvneshwar-Kohli-Dhoni.jpg)
Bhuvneshwar’s (R) bowling was impressive against South Africa [Getty Images]
With wickets in the bag, expect him to grow in confidence and create more trouble for batsmen who line up against him.
South Africa started the tournament with a convincing 96-run victory over Sri Lanka. But, thereafter, it was all downhill as the batsmen failed to deliver the goods in the face of some quality performances dished out by Pakistan and India.
Despite having depth and power in the line-up, they came a cropper in back-to-back games. It was worse against India as mindless running between wickets led to two run-outs and triggered a collapse as eight wickets fell for just 51 runs.
Their batsmen lacked the enterprise to take on the bowlers in the last two games and it allowed the rivals to gain complete control of proceedings. South Africa are a very good fielding unit but that too crumbled against India as there were a lot of slip-ups including a dropped catch of Kohli.
In short, they did little justice to their No.1 billing and gave more credence to the ‘chokers’ tag that has haunted them for their failure to come good in crunch games.
