• South Africa rue early collapse to 80 for eight
• Jonathan Trott sees England home with calm 82
England strolled their way into Sunday's Champions Trophy final. If winning by seven wickets, with 75 deliveries in hand, represents a breeze in what had been anticipated to be a tight contest, then it could have been more of a hurricane had it not been for a fighting ninth wicket partnership of 95 that lifted South Africa from the abject position of 80 for eight and facing the prospect of their lowest ever ODI total, to 175 all out.
This was an excellent pitch, though, and all that it did was give Jonathan Trott carte blanche to scratch his mark, take whatever time he needed and see the innings through. Which, predictably, he did, cover-driving the winning boundary, his eleventh, to finish unbeaten on 82 from 84 balls. Only Shikhar Dhawan of India has more runs in this tournament (at a strike-rate of almost 90 at that) and should India overcome Sri Lanka in the second semi-final, the pair will have the opportunity for a top-dog shootout.
Trott and Joe Root added 105 for the third wicket after Ian Bell and Alastair Cook had gone inside the first 11 overs, with Root making a nerveless, ebullient 48 before the exuberance of youth got the better of him and he was bowled behind his legs attempting an unnecessary soft paddle-sweep with the game all but won.
One does not want to carp too much, but twice England's middle order has collapsed in this tournament and these things can be triggered by such lapses. Root ought to have seen it through to the end with Trott, and it is not a mistake he will make when he is a little more wizened. As it was, Eoin Morgan helped finish things off at a gallop.
It would have been the easy option to make Trott man of the match, but that would have been to ignore some of the bowling that put England into such a dominant position in the first place.
This was by no means a vintage bowling performance, but yet again Jimmy Anderson was superb, sending down eight snaking overs for 14 runs and two wickets: one over, from round the wicket to the left-handed Robin Peterson, that culminated in his lbw, was a sublime example of a bowler at the peak of his game, setting up a batsman and then slipping in the knife. He might have done even better had Cook allowed him to bowl his quota of overs straight through, something he may have considered had he had a fifth front-line bowler.
James Tredwell, too, made it abundantly clear that even if Graeme Swann recovers from whatever discomfort is keeping him on the sidelines at the moment, he may not be considered for the final. Tredwell took three wickets for eight in a 17-ball period that knocked the middle from the South African innings, which was rightly recognised as the defining performance of the day. Such has been his reliability, particularly when under pressure, that given Australia's plethora of left-handers, it may well be that he, rather than Monty Panesar, is earmarked as the replacement should Swann suffer during the Ashes series. If Tredwell is charismatic only in his lack of obvious charisma then he is a terrific professional.
South Africa have done little to throw off the tag that they tend to blow the bigger occasions. Mitigation might come in saying that they did well to get this far given the loss of Graeme Smith, Jacques Kallis, Morne Morkel and, for most of the tournament, including this match, Dale Steyn. It also appeared that Lonwabo Tsotsobe, their highly-ranked left-arm pace bowler, was carrying an injury, such was his indifferent contribution to proceedings at a time when they needed all the firepower they could muster.
But against that Steve Finn, replacing Tim Bresnan who was still back home in Yorkshire, and Stuart Broad between them removed Hashim Amla and AB de Villiers, the top-ranked ODI batsmen in the world. They batted 12 deliveries only between them and scored one run.
Maybe Amla can claim a modicum of ill-fortune in trying to withdraw his bat and instead edging one of a record-equalling six catches to Jos Buttler, but de Villiers essayed the sort of stroke against a wide ball (which might well have been called as such) that will surely come back to haunt him when he is awake in the darkest depths of night.
There were times when England may not have been able to believe quite what was happening: if there is a South African equivalent of Murphy's Law then this was it. De Villiers' aberration apart, JP Duminy produced an 11-ball cameo in which he survived two lbws – one when given out and subsequently successfully reviewed by him, and another when given not out and England, misguidedly as it transpired, opted not to review it themselves – and then chopped Tredwell on to his stumps.
Unluckiest of all was Ryan McLaren, who advanced down the pitch to Tredwell, deflected the ball from his pad where Trott gathered and, with Buttler shrewdly stepping aside, underarmed the stumps: the one man in the ground who could genuinely claim it was Trott's fault.
It took David Miller, the robust left-hander, and Rory Kleinveldt, a more accomplished batsman than his position suggests, to lend some perspective. The pair took 38 from the power play and by the time Kleinveldt edged Broad down the legside, he had made 43.
Tsotsobe went first ball leaving Miller frustratingly high and dry on 56, from 51 balls, having hit five fours and two sixes, the first of them driven straight off Finn who, Amla's wicket notwithstanding, had a poor game. Now that Mrs Bresnan has herself delivered, her husband will no doubt return to do likewise on Sunday. Reported by guardian.co.uk 1 hour ago.
• Jonathan Trott sees England home with calm 82
England strolled their way into Sunday's Champions Trophy final. If winning by seven wickets, with 75 deliveries in hand, represents a breeze in what had been anticipated to be a tight contest, then it could have been more of a hurricane had it not been for a fighting ninth wicket partnership of 95 that lifted South Africa from the abject position of 80 for eight and facing the prospect of their lowest ever ODI total, to 175 all out.
This was an excellent pitch, though, and all that it did was give Jonathan Trott carte blanche to scratch his mark, take whatever time he needed and see the innings through. Which, predictably, he did, cover-driving the winning boundary, his eleventh, to finish unbeaten on 82 from 84 balls. Only Shikhar Dhawan of India has more runs in this tournament (at a strike-rate of almost 90 at that) and should India overcome Sri Lanka in the second semi-final, the pair will have the opportunity for a top-dog shootout.
Trott and Joe Root added 105 for the third wicket after Ian Bell and Alastair Cook had gone inside the first 11 overs, with Root making a nerveless, ebullient 48 before the exuberance of youth got the better of him and he was bowled behind his legs attempting an unnecessary soft paddle-sweep with the game all but won.
One does not want to carp too much, but twice England's middle order has collapsed in this tournament and these things can be triggered by such lapses. Root ought to have seen it through to the end with Trott, and it is not a mistake he will make when he is a little more wizened. As it was, Eoin Morgan helped finish things off at a gallop.
It would have been the easy option to make Trott man of the match, but that would have been to ignore some of the bowling that put England into such a dominant position in the first place.
This was by no means a vintage bowling performance, but yet again Jimmy Anderson was superb, sending down eight snaking overs for 14 runs and two wickets: one over, from round the wicket to the left-handed Robin Peterson, that culminated in his lbw, was a sublime example of a bowler at the peak of his game, setting up a batsman and then slipping in the knife. He might have done even better had Cook allowed him to bowl his quota of overs straight through, something he may have considered had he had a fifth front-line bowler.
James Tredwell, too, made it abundantly clear that even if Graeme Swann recovers from whatever discomfort is keeping him on the sidelines at the moment, he may not be considered for the final. Tredwell took three wickets for eight in a 17-ball period that knocked the middle from the South African innings, which was rightly recognised as the defining performance of the day. Such has been his reliability, particularly when under pressure, that given Australia's plethora of left-handers, it may well be that he, rather than Monty Panesar, is earmarked as the replacement should Swann suffer during the Ashes series. If Tredwell is charismatic only in his lack of obvious charisma then he is a terrific professional.
South Africa have done little to throw off the tag that they tend to blow the bigger occasions. Mitigation might come in saying that they did well to get this far given the loss of Graeme Smith, Jacques Kallis, Morne Morkel and, for most of the tournament, including this match, Dale Steyn. It also appeared that Lonwabo Tsotsobe, their highly-ranked left-arm pace bowler, was carrying an injury, such was his indifferent contribution to proceedings at a time when they needed all the firepower they could muster.
But against that Steve Finn, replacing Tim Bresnan who was still back home in Yorkshire, and Stuart Broad between them removed Hashim Amla and AB de Villiers, the top-ranked ODI batsmen in the world. They batted 12 deliveries only between them and scored one run.
Maybe Amla can claim a modicum of ill-fortune in trying to withdraw his bat and instead edging one of a record-equalling six catches to Jos Buttler, but de Villiers essayed the sort of stroke against a wide ball (which might well have been called as such) that will surely come back to haunt him when he is awake in the darkest depths of night.
There were times when England may not have been able to believe quite what was happening: if there is a South African equivalent of Murphy's Law then this was it. De Villiers' aberration apart, JP Duminy produced an 11-ball cameo in which he survived two lbws – one when given out and subsequently successfully reviewed by him, and another when given not out and England, misguidedly as it transpired, opted not to review it themselves – and then chopped Tredwell on to his stumps.
Unluckiest of all was Ryan McLaren, who advanced down the pitch to Tredwell, deflected the ball from his pad where Trott gathered and, with Buttler shrewdly stepping aside, underarmed the stumps: the one man in the ground who could genuinely claim it was Trott's fault.
It took David Miller, the robust left-hander, and Rory Kleinveldt, a more accomplished batsman than his position suggests, to lend some perspective. The pair took 38 from the power play and by the time Kleinveldt edged Broad down the legside, he had made 43.
Tsotsobe went first ball leaving Miller frustratingly high and dry on 56, from 51 balls, having hit five fours and two sixes, the first of them driven straight off Finn who, Amla's wicket notwithstanding, had a poor game. Now that Mrs Bresnan has herself delivered, her husband will no doubt return to do likewise on Sunday. Reported by guardian.co.uk 1 hour ago.