Dinesh Karthik Brutally Attacks South Africa; Claims They Deliberately Lost To New Zealand

The former Indian wicket-keeper batter, Dinesh Karthik, has blamed South Africa’s performance in the second semifinal of the Champions Trophy 2025 against New Zealand at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore. Temba Bavuma’s army failed to qualify for the final of the event.

New Zealand, on the other hand, thanks to their superb performance with the bat and ball in hand, exposed the middle order batting of the Rainbow Nation and showed full dominance in the field to reach their final of the event since 2009.

Mitchell Santner Foxes South Africa’s middle order

New Zealand’s veteran spin all-rounder, Mitchell Santner, was one of the main heroes for their victory against the Proteas. Even though Rachin Ravindra and Kane Williamson’s twin centuries put the platform of 300 runs in the first innings, Glenn Phillps stretched the score to beyond 350 in the first innings.

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South Africa was well in the chase, thanks to some big shots from Rassie van der Dussen and Temba Bavuma. But Santer displayed masterclass bowling as he varied the pace beautifully in the middle overs.

The left-arm spinner ended with 3/43 in his 10 overs and killed the entire momentum of the opponents to claim a heavy 50-run victory in the fixture.

“New Zealand annihilated South Africa”- Dinesh Karthik

The former Indian wicket-keeper batter, Dinesh Karthik, reckoned that at no stage, the Proteas were in the chase. He also believed that South Africa never put pressure on the Kiwis in the entire run chase.

“I want to make a statement. New Zealand annihilated South Africa today, as simple as that. They were not in the game. And I barely believed that South Africa would get close and put pressure on the Kiwis.” Dinesh Karthik expressed this during a recent interaction on Cricbuzz.

The 2013 Champions Trophy winner was impressed with how Australia, even with an inexperienced bowling line-up, kept themselves in the hunt, as one slight mistake from India would have been enough to change the result.

“You want to do what Australia did to India; they were an inexperienced side. But they took the game deep and were in the hunt. One mistake by India, even when Hardik and KL were batting, the result could have been different. That’s what you wanted from South Africa. This is just surrender.” Dinesh Karthik addressed.

Dinesh Karthik surprised at South Africa’s nervous moments in knockouts

Dinesh Karthik has also noted that this is the fourth semifinal of the side on the bounce across men’s and women’s that they have not qualified, and it has become a bad habit. The Proteas ended as the runners-up of the T20 World Cup 2024, losing the final against India.

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“You were out of the game so early. And you can’t just turn up to a semifinal feeling happy just to be in it. You are a team that speaks about winning the trophies. This is the fourth semifinal on the bounce across the men’s and women’s tournaments. You have been there in World Cups and multi-national tournaments.” The veteran explained.

“Play like the Champion side, and I feel it’s very unlucky to keep the chokers tag on them, but this is not a choke. This is a game where they have surrendered in a very soft manner. They are better than that, for sure.” Dinesh Karthik concluded.

South Africa’s next huge contest will be against Australia in the final of the World Test Championship (WTC) 2023-25 at Lord’s in June this year.