Yet another ICC tournament semi-final that ended with red-faced South Africa fans and a weary David Miller taking off his helmet and gloves on the field – scenes that felt all too familiar, much like the reasons behind their downfall. The second Champions Trophy 2025 semi-final was meant to be an exhibition of South Africa’s hitting prowess in one of the most dreaded conditions for bowlers in the whole world. Instead, the slightest hint of grip on the Lahore wicket saw the Proteas’ plans fall apart against an astute New Zealand side, who, not for the first time, outsmarted them with their on-field tactics in a crunch game.
Without much ado, we dissect the latest South African shenanigan on the big stage.
He may not have been playing, but 5.3 overs into the New Zealand innings, Dale Steyn made a prophetic call on air – “wait for the slower ball coming from Lungi Ngidi”. Sure enough, the very next ball was a slower off-cutter that Rachin Ravindra nudged, apprehensively, to the leg side. Just like that, Ngidi had found the way forward on this pitch. The South Africa pacer sent back Will Young with a slower variation in his next over, the only breakthrough the Proteas would have for the next 25 overs.
Ngidi continued to persist with his off-cutters and slower balls that the well-settled Rachin Ravindra and Kane Williamson failed to time well off. Meanwhile, at the other end, the likes of Kagiso Rabada, Wiaan Mulder, and Marco Jansen hadn’t received the memo. While Rabada strayed onto the pads and rarely used the slower variations, Mulder was banging the ball in short at pace, conceding eight runs per over. Jansen, Rabada began using the slower variations quite a bit later by which time the Kiwis had run away to a massive total.
Aiden Markram, whose bowling is quite a bit underrated, came in to bowl in tandem with Keshav Maharaj in the 24th over when a second burst from Jansen had confirmed that the lanky seamer wouldn’t be the most effective on this surface. The bowling change produced one of the most intriguing battles in the entire game. Markram had Ravindra frustrated as his loopy off-breaks were difficult to put away even for the well-set leftie. He eventually made just seven runs off 10 balls from the off-spinner.
Williamson and Maharaj, meanwhile, were engaged in a battle of their own. Williamson was coming off a battle with another left-arm spinner – Ravindra Jadeja – just a few days ago in much more adverse batting conditions. Then, he made room on the leg side to carve the ball through the off-side. Here, his approach was similar but, not one to be outsmarted. Maharaj varied his lines, lengths, and pace to prevent Williamson from creating extra room. The New Zealand veteran responded by shuffling across the crease from leg to offside and piercing the leg side field.
Maharaj’s guile, though, had Ravindra in brief trouble after he hit him against the wind for boundaries, when he nicked one to the keeper, but Heinrich Klaasen shelled a tough chance. That said, it was clear that the duo had found their tempo against Maharaj and saving up the left-armer for when the ball was older was a better move at that point.
“I couldn’t actually rotate the strike as well as I wanted and he was changing his pace really nicely,” Ravindra said after the game. “I think [Ravindra and Williamson] played particularly well against Keshav,” South Africa coach Rob Walter added.
Markram, meanwhile, continued to test the batters more than the pacers. But this was taken off once he completed four overs with the calculation to complete 10 overs between him and Mulder by the 40th over, becoming evident when the medium pacer was handed the ball again in the crucial final few overs before the field spread.
Maharaj’s quota of overs were also done by the 40th over with the skipper bizarrely ensuring he didn’t have too many choices to make in the final 10 overs. The best of Maharaj’s overs were done against the two best Kiwi batters of the day – 50 of his 60 balls coming against Ravindra and Williamson. With the old ball making spin-hitting even harder, the Proteas had all of their best spin overs finished and the part-time option left unused.
| Batter | R | B | 4s | 6s | 0s | 1s | 2s | 3s | SR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| R Ravindra | 27 | 25 | 3 | 1 | 12 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 6.48 |
| K Williamson | 32 | 25 | 1 | 2 | 8 | 12 | 2 | 0 | 7.68 |
| D Mitchell | 6 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3.6 |
The game was all but lost in the first innings. It’s not often that a team chases down 363 in an ODI, much less in a knockout clash under pressure. True, the venue had witnessed a run-chase of 352 earlier in the competition, but that had come on a much truer batting surface. This time, with the cutters and slower balls a lot more effective, New Zealand’s total was well above par.
The only way South Africa were chasing this was to have their best batters – undoubtedly Klaasen and David Miller – face a lot of balls. Instead, some of the most drab choices made saw the duo of Temba Bavuma and Rassie van der Dussen spend 105 balls together for 105 runs. The required run rate, which was 7.26 at the start of the innings, had crept up to 8.68 with nearly half the innings done. South Africa’s best bets to chase down this humungous total remained padded as Aiden Markram walked out.
The decision-making is as typically South African as it gets in crunch games. Be it the 1999 World Cup semi-final, the 2015 semi-final (much less so) or the 2023 semi-final, the Proteas were left behind the eight ball early in their batting innings due to overcautious choices made at the top. While the dramatic moments towards the end of these games have garnered the most attention, they were all scenarios that materialised owing to listless starts by the top-order. The story was no different here. With too much to do by the time Klaasen and Miller were in, the game was already “long gone”, as Herschelle Gibbs put it on his social media handle.
Bringing in a Klaasen, or at least Markram, at No.3 would have given the Proteas their best chance at chasing this total down. Instead, with Ryan Rickelton—the only aggressor in the regular top three—dismissed early, South Africa retreated into their familiar shell, one they so often struggle to break out of.
ALSO READ:
They compounded the poor choice to have Bavuma and van der Dussen together in the middle with a poor entry point for Klaasen against New Zealand’s best bowler, Mitchell Santner. Miller, a left-hander, was a better matchup to tackle Santner’s slow left-arm spin and could’ve been pushed over even Markram, who has clear issues against this type of bowling. Markram eventually fell to Rachin Ravindra’s part-time left-arm bowling, with Klaasen walking in to face the music from Santner.
Would it be a stretch then to say this was one of the worst sequences of strategic calls by any team in this tournament? Probably not. But as always, it is the Kluseners and Millers that face the wrath for the follies of the Kallises and Bavumas.
For more updates, follow CricXtasy on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Telegram, and YouTube.
