The Proteas choked in yet another ICC knockouts, suffering a shambolic defeat at the hands of New Zealand in the second semi-final of the Champions Trophy 2025 on Wednesday. As a result, Mitchell Santner & Co will be facing India in the grand finale on Sunday, March 09 as the extravagant stage at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium is all set to host the ultimate showdown.
In today’s game, the Kiwis batted first, and the start was nothing short of exceptional. Despite losing Will Young early, Kane Williamson partnered with opener Rachin Ravindra, and looked at utmost ease to find runs for fun on the Lahore turf. Their duo racked up a 164-run partnership, as Ravindra departed to Kagiso Rabada, but not before smashing an exceptional 108 off 101 in the demanding situation.
Williamson, too, arrived on the big stage in smashing 15th hundred of his career, also completing 19,000 international runs in the process. Both Daryl Mitchell (49) and Glenn Phillips (49*) were unable to complete their respective fifties, but were pivotal in helping the BlackCaps post a daunting 362/6 in the first innings.
The South African chase started with Ryan Rickelton departing for 17 off 12, as Matt Henry drew the first blood. From there, Rassie van der Dussen and Temba Bavuma took the onus upon themselves to notch up respective half-centuries, however, after both departed, the rainbow nation’s batting looked black & white. Only experienced campaigner David Miller had an individual party once Aiden Markram’s wicket fell in the 33rd over.
The southpaw had a fantastic display of batting, which came a little too late at the party. The left-handed batter compiled his unbeaten century off just 67 balls that arrived on the last ball of the game, as Bavuma & Co. remained 50 runs short of the target, getting knocked out of their campaign. South Africa’s story came to an end with a disappointing loss, where they had remained unbeaten so far.
Also Read: Bangladesh’s Mushfiqur Rahim calls it quits in ODIs
Naturally, a flurry of memes flooded the internet the moment South Africa failed to wipe off their chokers’ tag.
Here are some of the funniest tweets from X (formerly known as Twitter)
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