India thrash South Africa by 8 wickets to enter Champions Trophy semi-final

India today produced a clinical performance with both the bat and ball as they defeated South Africa by 8 wickets. Virat Kohli's boys today displayed near perfection in all departments of the game right from the beginning.

Shikhar Dhawan top-scored with 78 runs in India's facile win, while captain Virat Kohli remained unbeaten on 76.

With this win, India moved to the semifinal of the Champions Trophy where they will face Bangladesh at Edgbaston, Birmingham on June 15. Today's match, which was touted as a virtual quarter-final, saw a top-notch performance from the Indian players.

Earlier, a disciplined Indian bowling performance restricted South Africa to 191 runs in 44.3 overs in the Group B Champions Trophy clash at The Oval.

Asked to bat, South Africa were off to a slow but steady start with openers de Kock and Hashim Amla adding 35 runs in the first 10 overs. Opener Quinton de Kock was the highest scorer with 53 runs from 72 balls.

Pacers Jasprit Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar bagged two wickets each.

Star off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin got the breakthrough for India when Amla mistimed a cut and Mahendra Singh Dhoni displayed lighting quick reflexes to glove the top edge.

Ravindra Jadeja struck the second blow for India when he knocked back de Kock's off-stump. His dismissal saw the Indian bowlers starting to dominate proceedings as the rest of the South African batsmen displayed poor shot selection at times.

Except for AB de Villiers and Jean-Paul Duminy, none of the other SA batsmen were able to reach double figures.

*With Agency Inputs