Proteas qualify for semifinals as England's nightmare continues

South Africa delivered a lousy performance with the ball that fortunately for them was good enough against a catastrophic batting display by a hapless England outfit in Karachi on Saturday. 

In the last Group B match of the Champions Trophy, played out in front of a sparse audience at the National Stadium in Pakistan’s financial capital, England were dismissed for 179 in the 39th over. 

That minuscule total confirmed the Proteas’ semifinal spot, as no margin of defeat will be big enough for them to lose their significant advantage on net run rate to Afghanistan. If they complete the win, they will also top the group, but their semifinal opponent and venue will depend on the outcome of Sunday’s game in Dubai between India and New Zealand. 

They will know that they can’t repeat Saturday’s effort in that playoff match. The Proteas’ seamers were downright awful, misdirecting deliveries, overpitching and not providing stand-in captain Aiden Markram with much to work with. 

Besides the bad bowling, there were a couple of moments of sloppiness in the field. Lungi Ngidi, dreadful in his first spell, lamented a misfield, but after a good chase by Tristan Stubbs was followed by an even better throw to the bowler's end. Ngidi’s absence at the stumps cost them Ben Duckett’s wicket. 

A few balls later, Wiaan Mulder dropped Joe Root in the gully when he had three. Though the ball came to him quickly, Mulder should still have held the chance.

In addition to all of that, South Africa's discipline was lacking too. They served up 12 wides, while Kagiso Rabada bowled his usual no ball.

But this is an England team that clearly has several problems that need resolving. Jos Buttler offered one answer by resigning as captain on Friday, but head coach Brendon McCullum has plenty of work ahead of him to restructure the side. 

This batting horror show started early. Phil Salt hit a couple of boundaries off some wayward balls from Jansen and then mis-hit a hook to square leg where Rassie van der Duyssen held an easy catch. Jamie Smith showed, for the third innings in a row, why he is not a No 3, also mistiming a pull to Markram off Jansen’s bowling. 

Besides the missed run-out, Duckett was also gifted four boundaries, but then, attempting to flick Jansen through the legside, closed the bat face too early offering Jansen a simple catch off his own bowling. 

England had lost three wickets in the power play, but the 62 runs on the scoreboard was also indicative of South Africa's shoddiness.

The brightest part of the England innings was a 62-run fourth-wicket partnership between the ever elegant Root and the hard-hitting Harry Brook. 

But the latter, who is one of the leading candidates to take over the One-Day team’s captaincy, skied Keshav Maharaj towards midwicket, where Jansen, after sprinting 28 metres (according to TV analysis) to his right, did a beautiful knee slide to complete a stunning catch. 

Four balls later Mulder breached Root’s usually impregnable defence, bowling him for 37. With their best batter gone, the rest of the England side folded. 

Maharaj, was the best of South Africa's bowlers, delivering his 10 overs in a single spell, finishing with 2/35, with his second wicket, resulting from a smartly flighted delivery that was too good for Liam Livingstone, who was stumped. 

Ngidi atoned for his lacklustre efforts at the start with an amazing catch running backwards to dismiss Jamie Overton and then became the 13th South African to take 100 ODI wickets when he dismissed the embattled Buttler.

South Africa were missing Temba Bavuma and Tony de Zorzi, because of illness. There has been a bug going around in the South African team in the past few days. Last week Rabada had the sniffles too, with blame attached to the rainy weather and moving between air conditioning indoors to humid conditions outside. 

*Markram also went off the field with a right hamstring problem after making a diving stop at mid-off and did not field in the latter stages of England’s innings. He would bat in South Africa's reply, but only if necessary according to the team’s management.