South African pacers Wiaan Mulder and Marco Jansen grabbed three wickets apiece to skittle England for a dismal 170 all out in their Champions Trophy Group B match in Karachi on Saturday.
Mulder finished with 3-25 while Jansen took 3-39 as England’s innings never took off after they won the toss and batted and ended in 38.2 overs.
Spinner Keshav Maharaj had figures of 2-35 as England’s batting chart presented a sorry picture, with Joe Root the highest scorer with 37.
The fact that England were already out with two defeats in as many games, coupled with Jos Buttler stepping down as captain after this match, left them dispirited.
Jansen removed opener Phil Salt (eight), Jamie Smith (nought) and Ben Duckett (24) in an incisive first spell of five overs.
He then took a brilliant diving catch at long-on off Maharaj to send Harry Brook back for 19, ending a 62-run fourth wicket stand with Root.
Just four runs later, England suffered a massive blow when Root was bowled by Mulder, and the problems worsened when Liam Livingstone was dismissed by Maharj for nine.
Root’s 44-ball knock had one six and four boundaries.
Buttler (21) and Jofra Archer (25) added 42 runs for the eighth wicket, but once Archer was dismissed by Mulder, the last two wickets fell with the addition of just eight runs.
South Africa were forced to make two changes with captain Temba Bavuma and opener Tony de Zorzi being ill.
They were replaced with Tristan Stubbs and Heinrich Klaasen, who was recovering from an elbow injury and had to sit out South Africa’s opener against Afghanistan in the Champions Trophy.
Stand-in skipper Aiden Markram was also forced to leave the field with a hamstring problem and will only bat in the second innings if required. Klaasen will be captaining the side in his absence.
A South African win will earn them a semi-final spot along with Australia from Group B.
India and New Zealand — who meet in Dubai on Sunday — are the two semi-finalists from Group A.
The match, being played at Karachi’s National Stadium, carries the weight of an era’s closure for England, with their captain Buttler announcing his resignation before the match, while South Africa eyes a top-of-the-group finish to secure a smoother semi-final path.
Yesterday, Australia qualified for the Champions Trophy semi-finals after their Group B match against Afghanistan ended without a result due to persistent rain in Lahore.
While responding to a question by Dawn.com at the pre-match press conference yesterday, South Africa men’s ODI coach Rob Walter said, “Yeah, I think any experience in the subcontinent is valuable.
“Certainly, the tri-series was valuable for us, albeit that there was a large portion of the squad that wasn’t there, but they have been to Pakistan before. But all in all, it was a great exercise.
“[We] would have loved to have had one more game in that final, just to sort of tick it all off. But yeah, we’re pretty happy. We started the competition well on the back of some individually good performances in the tri-series. But as we’ve learned with cricket, conditions change all the time.
“There’s no one way, and there’s no one condition. It’s really about being adaptable.”
He was responding to a query regarding South Africa’s familiarity with the conditions in Karachi being a factor in the Champions Trophy, where they have a decent chance of winning their first ICC ODI trophy in nearly three decades.
In the lead up to the tournament, South Africa played a tri-series against New Zealand and hosts Pakistan, playing a match in Karachi and Lahore.
South Africa last won an ICC ODI tournament when they won the 1998 ICC Knock Out Trophy, where they beat West Indies in the final by 4 wickets.
