Champions Trophy 2025 / Did South Africa lose the semifinal because of India? David Miller's big statement

Champions Trophy 2025: South Africa's choking streak in ICC tournaments continued once again. After a 50-run defeat against New Zealand in the semi-finals of the Champions Trophy 2025, the South African team once again missed out on a place in the final. Even while chasing a target of 363 runs in a high-scoring match, the team could not live up to expectations. After the defeat, the team's experienced batsman David Miller made a strong statement about the ICC's travel arrangements and called it a major reason for the defeat.

David Miller raised questions on ICC

After the semi-final defeat, David Miller expressed his displeasure over the hybrid model of the tournament. In this Champions Trophy, Team India played all its matches in Dubai, while the matches of the rest of the teams were held in Pakistan. The situation became more complicated when it was not decided till the last group stage match which team India would play against in the semi-finals. Due to this, South Africa and Australia, who reached the semi-finals from Group B, had to come to Dubai from Pakistan, but after India's victory over New Zealand, South Africa had to return to Pakistan, as their semi-final match was in Lahore.

David Miller said, "The flight was only for one hour and 40 minutes, but we had to make this journey, which was not right. It was a morning flight, we had to travel after the match. Then we reached Dubai at 4 pm and at 7:30 am we had to return. It was not like we were coming back from a 5-hour flight, and we had enough time to rest and fully recover. But this situation was not ideal at all." According to Miller, this extra journey affected the fitness and mental preparation of the players.

Miller's fighting innings went in vain

Despite South Africa's defeat, David Miller displayed tremendous batting in the semi-finals. He played a brilliant innings of 100 not out off 67 balls, which included 10 fours and 4 sixes. This was the fastest century in Champions Trophy history, but his innings could not take the team to victory.

Will South Africa's bad luck continue?

South Africa has been given the tag of 'chokers', and once again this team could not live up to the expectations in the knockouts of ICC tournaments. Be it the semi-final of the 1999 World Cup, the big match of the 2007 T20 World Cup or the painful semi-final of the 2015 World Cup - the South African team has always been seen falling apart under pressure. Now it remains to be seen when this team will be able to break this mental barrier and win the ICC trophy.