The Indian team produced a dominating performance in the virtual quarter finals of Champions Trophy 2017 match yesterday at Kennington Oval, London.
South Africa was bowled out for a paltry 191 in 44.3 overs and the Men in Blue chased down the target in 38 overs with 8 wickets to spare. With this India reached the semi-finals of Champions Trophy where they will face Bangladesh on 15th June at Edgbaston.
India lost their previous match against Sri Lanka at the same ground on 8th June. Shikhar Dhawan 125, Rohit 78, MS Dhoni 63, Kedar Jadhav quick fire 25 in 13 balls helped the Men in Blue scored 321 for 6 in 50 overs but the fielding was not up to the mark dropping catches and not picking wickets at regular intervals was the reason for India’s 7 wicket loss with 8 balls to spare.
After yesterday win “You have to be honest. You have to sometimes say things that hurt. That”s what I believe in,” he said. “You have to lay it out in front of them that this is what we did wrong, including me, and we need to take it on the chin and accept it and prove it. “That’s why we are chosen among millions of people to play at this level. You have to be good enough to do that for the country and you have to be good enough to bounce back, as well, added Kohli. The Indian captain further admitted, “You can’t do the same mistakes over and over again. That sort of mindset is really helping all of us to come together as a unit and make things happen. “It’s not about asking two, three players to do it. We are asking everyone to do it and everyone is responding really well. Kohli further said, “Until you have a team effort, you cannot win games, especially in conditions that you are not familiar with. Today was a team performance.”
India bought in Ravichandran Ashwin for Umesh Yadav in yesterday’s match. He bowled with great control and accuracy, taking the big wicket of Hashim Amla for 35 and also did not allow the South African batsmen to score runs with ease. In his 9 overs, Ravichandran Ashwin gave away just 43 runs and took 1 wicket. The other Indian bowlers also contributed with tight line. Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar picked 2 wickets each while Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin and Hardik Pandya took 1 wicket each. AB de Villiers and David Miller were run outs.
Chasing the target of 192, Shikhar Dhawan 78 and Virat Kohli 76 not out helped India to chase down the modest total with 8 wickets to spare. The Indian fielding stood up to the occasion and created pressure on South African batsmen.
In Group A, England and Bangladesh have qualified for the semi-finals of prestigious CT 2017. India have qualified with the win over South Africa. Pakistan and Sri Lanka takes on each other in today’s match, whichever team wins the match will be the fourth semi-finalist.
“Until you have a team effort, you cannot win games, especially in conditions that you are not familiar with. Today was a team performance.” India played like champions against South Africa and hope that Virat Kohli led side could lift the Champions Trophy title again as they did under the captaincy of MS Dhoni in 2013.
India won 2 matches against Pakistan and South Africa in the group stages. If they beat Bangladesh on 15th June, then they might face England in the finals on 18th June at Oval.
