The most underrated English bowler—James Anderson literally kept his nerves in an important clash against a side that has always been known to choke under pressure to help his side saunter into the semifinals of the ICC Champions Trophy in South Africa. He mixed his slower ones beautifully, got the length perfectly and foxed the batsman with his line on a wicket. His ten over costed just 42 runs and managed to pick three crucial wickets to single-handedly take England HOME! The Poms won over the great CHOKERS by 22 runs.
So will South Africans remain chokers? Yes sir, they continue to. The hosts who were completely clueless to Owais Shah’s onslaught in the first innings that helped England score 323 for 8 in their 50 overs went on to lose the match by —–runs and failed to seal their spot in the semis of the ongoing ICC Champions Trophy on Sunday. For the Proteas, it was their skipper Graeme Smith who scored his nineth one-day hundred to help his team reach the summit. He scored a phenomenal 141 off 134 balls in an extraordinary effort which not surprisingly came in a losing cause.
The match saw some drama in the middle towards the end of the 44th over of the South African innings when a cramped Graeme Smith was denied a runner by the opposition captain Andrew Strauss. Smith surely was unhappy at a time when he appeared to be struggling with his runnings.
Earlier in the day, Owais Shah put the South African attack to the sword with a rapidfire 98 to help his side score an imposing total on board. He butchered the Proteas attack with six towering six sixes and five fours in his 89-ball knock putting on a record 163 off 26.1 overs for the third wicket with all-rounder Paul Collingwood who scored 82 off 94 balls.
It was also England’s highest one-day total against South Africa, the previous best being 304-8.
Shah and Collingwood set the stage for the final onslaught, with England plundering 92 in their last 10 overs. Eoin Morgan also feasted on the South African attack, cracking a 34-ball 67 for his second successive half-century with the help of five sixes and four boundaries.
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