Former Indian cricketer Mohammed Kaif has strongly criticized England\u2019s batting approach in the ongoing Champions Trophy 2025 clash against South Africa, stating that the team plays ODI cricket like a T20 game. Kaif pointed out England\u2019s reckless shot selection, highlighting how their aggressive batting strategy led to another major batting collapse in Karachi on Saturday.<\/p>\n
\u201cEngland doesn\u2019t know how to play a bit safe. Every batter comes in, swings the bat, and gets out. This is not how you play ODIs,\u201d Kaif said, reacting to England\u2019s disastrous performance, which saw them bowled out for 157 runs in 34.5 overs.<\/p>\n
Despite winning the toss and opting to bat, Jos Buttler\u2019s England crumbled under pressure, posting the lowest total of the tournament. South African pacer Marco Jansen led the attack with a devastating opening spell, claiming three wickets in the powerplay and restricting England to a below-par total.<\/p>\n
With this comprehensive bowling performance, South Africa sealed their spot in the semi-finals, chasing 180 to top Group B. They reached 58\/2 after the first 10 overs, making England\u2019s early exit from the tournament even more humiliating.<\/p>\n
Afghanistan, who needed England to win by a 207-run margin to qualify, have now been eliminated from the competition.<\/p>\n
The match also marked the end of Jos Buttler\u2019s tenure as England\u2019s white-ball captain, as he had announced his decision to step down following the team\u2019s early exit from the tournament. Meanwhile, South Africa\u2019s stand-in captain Aiden Markram, leading in the absence of the unwell Temba Bavuma, also suffered an injury during the match.<\/p>\n
With England\u2019s campaign ending in disappointment, Kaif\u2019s criticism reflects growing concerns over the team\u2019s flawed approach in the 50-over format.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Former Indian cricketer Mohammed Kaif has strongly criticized England\u2019s batting approach in the ongoing Champions Trophy 2025 clash against South\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":250,"featured_media":31470,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3965],"class_list":["post-8659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cricket","tag-champions-trophy-2025"],"reading_time":"2 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/250"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8659"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8659\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}