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South Africa’s semi-final elimination by New Zealand in Lahore on Wednesday leaves India as the only unbeaten team of the Champions Trophy, heading into Sunday’s final here.
Bittersweet 16 months
It’s been a bittersweet 16 months for South African cricket. They have been supremely consistent across formats, evidenced by their semi-final appearances in the 50-over World Cup in India in late 2023 and now in the Champions Trophy, and by their entry into the final of the T20 World Cup in Bridgetown in June, when they somehow managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory against India.
For all their consistency, they haven’t any silverware to show, an anomaly they will seek to rectify in the final of the World Test Championship against Australia in three months’ time. The Lord’s showdown between the two best Test sides at the moment promises a mouthwatering clash of equals; the onus will be on South Africa to shed the tag of bridesmaids, a tag that has been affixed to them seemingly forever. Amidst the slew of meltdowns and heartbreaks, their title triumph in the inaugural ICC KnockOut Trophy (the original avatar of the Champions Trophy) in Dhaka in 1998 has been all but forgotten.
David Miller, the middle-order batter whose unbeaten century against New Zealand on Wednesday came in a losing cause, reflected on the short visit his side was forced to make from Lahore to Dubai for a potential semi-final against India back to Lahore, terming it far from ‘ideal’ ahead of a match as important as this. Miller didn’t hold that as the reason for South Africa’s elimination — that can’t explain them conceding 362 runs in 50 overs — but one could see where he’s coming from.
Dubai trip aborted
South Africa’s abortive trip to Dubai was another fallout of the hybrid model the tournament was forced to adopt once it became clear that India would not be given permission to play in Pakistan. Perhaps there is a lesson from the happenings of the last fortnight for the International Cricket Council, though what that lesson is and how to move on from that are up in the air.
A host of global and continental events are scheduled to be hosted by India or by Pakistan in the next few years. If this standoff continues and both teams are unable to play in the other nation, compromises must be struck, of course, but a less complicated travel and scheduling methodology needs to be arrived at. It’s more than likely that the T20 Asia Cup, to be hosted by the Board of Control for Cricket in India, will be staged in its entirety this September either in the UAE or in Sri Lanka, so any immediate repeat of the Champions Trophy fiasco can be ruled out. But going forward, the efficacy of a hybrid model must be debated at length because clearly, the way it stands right now does not do a majority of the teams any favours.
Adaptable Kiwis
Having handled the Dubai-Lahore turnover with aplomb, New Zealand must now rejig their approach for Sunday’s title clash against Rohit Sharma’s men. Of all the teams in the tournament, they are the least fussy and the most adaptable. Perhaps that’s why they are in the final.
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