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England thrash Proteas

London - England have comprehensively beaten the Proteas by seven wickets in their ICC Champions Trophy semi-final at the Oval in London.

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Jonathan Trott top-scored (82 not out) for the hosts , who never looked like losing their grip on the match after skipper Alastair Cook won the toss and elected to field earlier in the day, proceeding to tumble out the Proteas for a paltry 175.

Had it not been for the heroics of David Miller and Rory Kleinveldt at the lower end of the South African innings, the total may have been far more embarrassing for the Proteas, as they slumped to 80-8 at one stage.

Miller and Kleinveldt would smash a record ninth-wicket stand of 95 to give the Proteas a small glimmer of hope.

Miller hit an unbeaten 56, with Kleinveldt chipping in with a career-best 43.

England started off their chase in a circumspect fashion as captain Cook and Ian Bell set about seeing off the two new balls.

It was Cook who would be first to depart, caught behind by Proteas captain and wicketkeeper AB de Villiers off the bowling of Chris Morris after only scoring six.

Bell was next to go, also caught behind by De Villiers off the bowling of Kleinveldt for 20.

From there on in, Trott, who was ably supported by Joe Root, made light work of the South African attack, putting up a 105-run partnership, all but sealing England's passage into Sunday's final.

Root made a well-composed 48 before being bowled by JP Duminy.

Eoin Morgan then joined Trott at the crease, providing a brief cameo performance of 15 not out before the latter went on to hit the winning runs.

Earlier, the South African innings started disastrously as they lost both openers, Colin Ingram and Hasim Amla, off the first 10 deliveries of the match to make it 4-2.

Pinch-hitter Robin Peterson smashed 30 a third-wicket stand of 41 with Faf du Plessis before becoming Anderson's second leg-before victim in the 11th over.

Two overs later, the Proteas suffered a major blow when skipper De Villiers gifted his wicket with a wild drive off Broad that was edged to the wicket-keeper.

Tredwell made up for the absence of the injured Graeme Swann as he had Duminy leg-before in his second over and got Du Plessis caught behind in his third.

South Africa slumped to 70-6 in the 19th over and it soon became 76-7 when Ryan McLaren was run out by an alert Jonathan Trott in the slips as the batsman stepped out to drive Tredwell.

Morris didn't stick around too long as he was caught behind by wicketkeeper, Jos Buttler, before Kleinveldt and Miller rescued some pride.

Buttler held six catches in an impressive display by the hosts in front of 25 000 fans at the Oval.

Seamer Stuart Broad and off-spinner James Tredwell claimed three wickets each and James Anderson took two for 14 in eight overs.

Scores:
South Africa - 175 in 38.4 overs: (David Miller 56 not out, Rory Kleinveldt 43; James Tredwell 3-19, Stuart Broad 3-50, James Anderson 2-14)
England -  179-3 in 37.3 overs: (Jonathan Trott 82 not out, Joe Root 48)

Teams:
South Africa:

Colin Ingram, Hashim Amla, AB de Villiers (captain, wk), JP Duminy, Faf du Plessis, David Miller, Ryan McLaren, Robin Peterson, Chris Morris, Rory Kleinveldt, Lonwabo Tsotsobe

England:
Alastair Cook (captain), Ian Bell, Jonathan Trott, Joe Root, Eoin Morgan, Jos Buttler (wk), Ravi Bopara, Stuart Broad, James Tredwell, James Anderson, Steven Finn




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