The South African cricket team has exited the Champions Trophy. This was a result of a shambolic performance in the semi-final against New Zealand. Prior to the encounter, both South Africa and Australia had flown to Dubai in the circumstance that they face India. South Africa didn't face India and thus had to travel back to Pakistan. David Miller has now spoken out about the travelling.
Intially, the players were fine with the travelling. South Africa had taken the 18-hour stopover in Dubai between matches in Pakistan in their stride and used the opportunity to "get out and walk and have some nice steak" between the end of the Champions Trophy group stage and their semi-final against New Zealand on Wednesday.
"We knew that there was a big possibility that we might have to fly up and down," Heinrich Klaasen said in Lahore. "It's not ideal for the bodies, but at least we had some time to get out and walk around and get loose and just had some nice steak, to be fair. We knew it's going to happen and it's part of the scheduling so two teams had to do it, and unfortunately, we were one of them."
South Africa left Karachi on Sunday morning after confirming their final-four spot with a seven-wicket victory over England. They flew back to Pakistan on Monday at 11:00, later than New Zealand, who left at 04:00 after losing to India on Sunday evening. As a result, Klaasen expected South Africa to be slightly more rested, especially since they didn't have to leave Pakistan, as the other teams in Group A did, during the league stage.
Part of the downtime for three of the South Africa players, including Marco Jansen, also included night golf in Dubai. Though the teams are allowed to go out of their hotels in Pakistan to play golf, South Africa have not made use of this provision and have remained in their hotels, as necessitated by the security situation in the country, which is not the case in Dubai, where they are allowed out. Several other squad members used the time in Dubai to visit a mall and Klaasen confirmed none of them, apart from some support staff, watched the match between India and New Zealand.
Now, a mere 24 hours after the defeat, David Miller has rolled out the excuses for the shameful performance.
The haphazard scheduling was a result of India playing all their games in Dubai after refusing to travel to tournament hosts Pakistan for political reasons. "It's only an hour and 40 minute flight, but the fact that we had to do that was not ideal," Miller said after South Africa lost to New Zealand on Wednesday by 50 runs.
South Africa made what was ultimately a wasted trip soon after defeating England in Karachi on Saturday. "It's early morning, it's after a game and we had to fly. Then we got to Dubai at 4:00 pm. And at 7.30 am we had to come back. It doesn't make it nice."
"It's not like we flew five hours, and we had enough time to recover and recuperate, but it was not an ideal situation still."
Miller smashed a 67-ball 100* in a lost cause as South Africa went down to New Zealand, who will face India in Sunday's final in Dubai.
The Black Caps scored the highest-ever Champions Trophy total of 362-6 on the back of sparkling centuries from Rachin Ravindra (108) and Kane Williamson (102).
Temba Bavuma (56) and Rassie van der Dussen (69) steadied the South African innings with a 105-run second-wicket stand before New Zealand's spinners, led by Mitchell Santner's 3-43, restricted them to 312-9 in 50 overs.
"It's not easy chasing 360 even if it's a good wicket," said Miller, who struck four sixes and 10 fours in his seventh ODI hundred. "I think the wicket just deteriorated as the game went on and they spun the ball a lot more than us."
He blasted the International Cricket Council (ICC), organisers of the Champions Trophy 2025, for forcing his team to fly twice in a span of 24 hours between Pakistan and Dubai, ahead of the all-important semi-final clash against New Zealand.
"It’s only an hour-and-40-minute flight, but the fact that we had to do that was not ideal,” Miller was quoted as saying by Indian Express, after his 63-ball century was also not enough to take his team, as they could only score 312-9 and lost the game by 50-runs to bow out.
"It's just they got a little bit more purchase out of the wicket." Miller predicted a "great" final, adding: "I'll be honest with you, I think I'll be supporting New Zealand."
As much as I hate to say this, I believe that David Miller is just being a sore loser. I bet there wouldn't be any of this chatter had South Africa won. I don't see a valid reason for it. New Zealand had the same schedule and flying plans. Therefore, both countries were on equal standing.
I haven't seen a related article in relation to Australia's loss. The latter has accepted the loss and have probably moved on. The Proteas and the fans will have to wait until, at least, June for possible silverware when they take on Australia in the World Test Championship (WTC) final at Lord's (London).