ICC Champions Trophy 2017: 5 reasons for South Africa's? premature exit

Modified Jun 16, 2017 18:09 IST

LONDON, ENGLAND - MAY 29: South Africa bowler Kagiso Rabada in action during the 3rd Royal London Cup match between England and South Africa at Lord's Cricket Ground on May 29, 2017 in London, England. (Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images) — Rabada was expected to breathe fire on English pitches but instead was woeful

#1 Inability to build steady partnerships

LONDON, ENGLAND - JUNE 03: Faf du Plessis and Hashim Amla of South Africa irun between the wickets during the ICC Champions trophy cricket match between Sri Lanka and South Africa at The Oval in London on June 3, 2017 (Photo by Clive Rose/Getty Images) — Proteas could build few effective partnerships in the tournament

It would be rather wrong to assume that South Africa did not build good partnerships at all but very few were effective. In all three games of the tournament, the Proteas had at least one pair that looked set to go big. But save for the Faf du Plessis-Hashim Amla partnership in the Sri Lankan game, none of the others went ahead.

De Villiers was keen on gifting his wickets away while Du Plessis managed to under edge onto his stumps twice. Miller was pretty good at 5 but his partners let him down twice, with him running out of batsmen at the other end against Pakistan and then Du Plessis running him out against India. Duminy and Morris – well, they are better left undiscussed.

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Edited by Staff Editor