Karachi, Mar 1: Wiaan Mulder and Marco Jansen picked three wickets each in a dominating bowling performance as South Africa bowled out England for just 179, the lowest total of 2025 Champions Trophy, in the final Group B clash at the National Stadium on Saturday.

With England all out under 207, South Africa have qualified for the semifinals, and Afghanistan are eliminated from the competition. Electing to bat first, England put on a shoddy batting performance, as no one scored more than Joe Root's 37, and wickets fell in clumps, along with South Africa being superb in their catching and ground fielding.

Despite stand-in captain Aiden Markram going off due to a hamstring injury, it didn’t deter South Africa in their quest to keep England on a tight leash. Apart from Mulder and Jansen, Keshav Maharaj took two wickets, while Lungi Ngidi and Kagiso Rabada picked a scalp each.

Jasen made an immediate impact as Phil Salt top-edged to mid-wicket and fall in the first over. The tall all-rounder came back in the third over to have Jamie Smith pull to mid-on and fell for a three-ball duck. Jansen made his third strike in the power-play when he caught Ben Duckett’s leading edge off his own bowling.

South Africa could have got their fourth wicket if Mulder hadn’t dropped a catch at gully when Root was on three. To add salt to wounds, Brook hit Kagiso Rabada for back-to-back boundaries and hit him for another four, while Root hit Jansen for two boundaries as England ended the first power-play at 62/3.

Root signalled intention to change gears when he took a six and four off Mulder and Rabada respectively. The 62-run stand for the fourth wicket ended when Brook didn’t get elevation on the loft off Maharaj and Jansen completed a stunning catch by running around a long way from long-on, dived to his right, and made a dive to grab the ball with both hands.

One brought two for South Africa as Root tried to flick off Mulder, but he completely missed it as the ball crashed into the stumps after hitting his back pad. England’s slide continued as Liam Livingstone was stumped easily off Maharaj, while Ngidi took a stunning catch to dismiss Jamie Overton off Rabada.

Jos Buttler, playing his last game as England’s captain, and Jofra Archer tried to resurrect England’s innings through a 42-run stand, before a diving Jansen took another superb catch to send the latter back and break the partnership. In the next over, Buttler chipped straight to mid-off and fall to Ngidi for 21, while Adil Rashid nicked behind off Mulder as England’s terrible batting innings ended with 11.4 overs to spare.

Brief Scores: England 179 all out in 38.2 overs (Joe Root 37, Jofra Archer 25; Wiaan Mulder 3-25, Marco Jansen 3-39) against South Africa

(IANS)

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