Buzzin Cricket

An implausible victory over South Africa saw England become the fist team to progress into the semi finals of the ICC Champions Trophy on Sunday, with Andrew Strauss hailing England’s display with the bat as the best he had seen.

Indeed the memories of the 6-1 drubbing by Australia seem to have been put firmly behind England as Strauss and Denly set the foundations but it was man of the match, Owais Shah(98)  who shone brilliantly particularly in the partnership with Paul Collingwood(82) and Eoin Morgan(67) who set up the victory as England hit twelve sixes in scoring 323 for 8.

South Africa’s larger than life captain Graeme Smith then put on a superb display of batting himself to keep his team’s chances alive, he finally fell to Stuart Broad for 141, with South Africa on 274 for 9.

After the fifty overs South Africa trailed by 22 runs with 301 for 9.

An angry Smith then launched into Strauss for refusing to allow him to bring on a runner with just six overs remaining – his request quite rightly ignored by Strauss and umpires Steve Davis and Tony Hill.

“He asked me for a runner because he was cramping, the umpires were not particularly keen to give him one, and I felt at the end of a long game when you have had a long innings you are going to be tired,” said Strauss.

“That is one of the things that happens and cramping to a certain extent is a preparation thing and to a certain extent a conditioning thing. I didn’t feel he merited having a runner at that stage. My personal view is you shouldn’t get a runner for cramps full stop.”

Bitter in defeat Smith made the following noise;

“From my perspective it seemed a little bit inconsistent, players have got runners for cramp in the past and there needs to be a level of consistency there. The thing I have learned from this game is that the world is round and it is going to come back somewhere in his captaincy.It will be interesting to see how he handles it if it happens again. It was a crucial part of the game, I had been on the field for 95 overs and had cramped up.”

England’s final group game is against New Zealand on Tuesday.