New Zealand cruised past South Africa in the Champions Trophy 2025 semi-final in Lahore by 50 runs, as the Proteas suffered their first defeat in the competition and were knocked out. David Miller was the sole shining light in the South Africa batting innings as he scored the fastest century in Champions Trophy history, but his herculean effort went in vain. After being knocked out, Miller took a dig at the scheduling of the tournament, especially with India playing all their games in Dubai.
Before the final group game between India and New Zealand on March 2 (Sunday), the two qualified teams from Group B, i.e. Australia and South Africa, had to travel to Dubai to see who would win. With India winning the game and setting up a semi-final clash with Australia, South Africa had to travel back the next day to Lahore where they would take on New Zealand in the second semi-final.
Speaking after the semi-final loss, David Miller revealed that they had to fly to Dubai the day after their final group game against England in Karachi. They reached Dubai at 4 PM and then had to travel back the next day to Lahore at 7.30 AM. He said that even though they had enough time to recover, it was not an ideal situation.
“It’s only an hour and 40 minute flight, but the fact that we had to do that was not ideal. 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 said.
