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Today's match was meant to be best vs best, but South Africa's batting made fans reconsider if they really are a strong batting side. India won the toss today and elected to bat first. Rohit Sharma unleashed his explosive side again by smacking sixes and fours and strongly boosting India's run rate.
Shubman Gill and Rohit Sharma allowed India to score around 90 runs in just 10 overs!
After they departed, Shreyas Iyer and Virat Kohli played a calm and composed innings that slowed down the run rate but kept India's hopes of scoring a decent total alive.
Kohli successfully secured another century in this world cup and leveled his record to the legend Sachin Tendulkar. India put on a total of 326 runs (326-5), setting a target of 327 runs for South Africa. In the 2nd innings, India's fierce bowling pressurized South Africa.
Mohammed Siraj started the collapse, and Kuldeep Yadav ended it. Jadeja got a fifer, and India's overall efforts restricted South Africa to an embarrassing total of 83 runs (83-10) in 27.1 overs. Thus, India won the match by 243 runs.
Post Match interviews
Rohit Sharma (India's Captain)
"If you look at how we have played in the last three games, we have adapted better," Sharma said, as quoted by cricbuzz.com. "We were put under pressure against England.
But we got a decent score and then the seamers did the job. We lost a wicket in the first over. Then got runs and then the seamers did well. We needed Kohli to go out there and play the situation. We then knew we had to keep it in the right areas and let the pitch do the rest.
[on Shreyas Iyer] Even if the faith hadn't been repaid, I would have still stuck to them. We need to keep the trust. It can't be done everyday. For Shami to comeback the way he has, shows the mindset. The last two games has shown what Iyer is capable of.
Gill and myself have been batting together for a majority of time now. We let the instincts take over. We don't preplan anything. We just assess and play accordingly. Jadeja has been very good for us. Playing in every format over the years.
Today was a classical case as to what Jadeja is for us. Came out at the death and scored vital runs. Then picked up wickets. He knows his role and knows what the expectations from him. Not to get too ahead of ourselves has been the talk in the dressing room.
Couple of big games coming up. We don't want to change anything".
Temba Bavuma (South Africa's Captain)
"We know it's a challenge," Bavuma said as quoted by cricbuzz.com. "We have lost chasing. We had had our conversations with our batters.
They got 90 in the first 10 overs. We did well after that. Curbed down the run-rate. Sharma kind of set it up. Kohli and Iyer had a good partnership. The wicket played the way we suspected it well. We were not able to adapt unfortunately. Potentially, we might play again here in the semis".