South Africa beat England by seven wickets in Lahore to reach Champions Trophy semifinals while eliminating Afghanistan.

Rassie van der Dussen scored 72 not out off 87 balls to lead South Africa into the semifinals of the Champions Trophy by beating bottom-of-the-table England by seven wickets.

Van der Dussen’s half-century highlighted South Africa’s clinical performance on Saturday as it finished atop Group B ahead of Australia in second and Afghanistan, who are now eliminated, in third.

The Proteas finished with 181-3 in 29.1 overs in reply to England’s hapless effort of 179 all out (38.2 overs).

This was after England – already ousted from the tournament after back-to-back losses – had won the toss and opted to bat.

Marco Jansen picked 3-39 in seven overs while Wiaan Mulder took 3-25 in 7.2 overs as England’s batting looked disinterested.

England had previously lost to Australia and Afghanistan and thus finished winless after three games, marking a dismal end to Jos Buttler’s run as skipper.

Buttler announced on Friday that he would step down after England’s surprising exit as well as their past failures in the 2024 T20 World Cup and the 2023 Cricket World Cup.

Australia are the second team to qualify from Group B and will face either India or New Zealand after those two Group A teams battle for the top spot in Dubai on Sunday.

Afghanistan had an outside hope of progressing in second spot with Australia winning the group if England had beaten the Proteas by 200 runs or more.

England’s innings suffered early blows against Jansen. Phil Salt was out caught for eight, and then Jamie Smith was caught for a three-ball duck.

It became 37-3 when Ben Duckett returned a catch to Jansen for 24 off 21 balls.

“These were good conditions from a batting point of view, and the boys worked very hard,” said Jansen, who was named player of the match. “I used my options well and hit my lengths.”

Joe Root top-scored with 37 off 44 balls and made an effort to stabilise the innings. He added 62 off 61 balls with Harry Brook (19).

Left-arm spinner Keshav Maharaj (2-35) got the breakthrough with Jansen taking a nice catch at midwicket to dismiss Brook. Thereafter, England collapsed again.

Mulder bowled Root in the 18th over, and while Buttler held one end with 21 off 43 balls, regular wickets meant that the English innings never took flight. Jofra Archer scored 25 off 31 balls with four fours.

England lost its last seven wickets for 80 runs, finishing with a below-par score.

“It was a really disappointing performance, and we were short of our mark today,” Buttler said after England’s seventh straight ODI defeat. “It was a decent surface, and Duckett got us into a nice position, but we couldn’t take advantage of that. As a whole group, we are not getting results, and that takes away the confidence from us.”

Chasing a paltry total, South Africa’s start wasn’t too good either. Archer bowled makeshift opener Tristan Stubbs for a five-ball duck and then bowled Ryan Rickelton (27) later on as well.

It was 47-2 when van der Dussen and Heinrich Klaasen came together, and they put on 127 runs off 122 balls for the third wicket.

Van der Dussen reached 50 off 72 balls, and his knock for the day included six fours and three sixes overall.

Stand-in skipper Aiden Markram did not bat after he sustained a hamstring injury while fielding.

Klaasen finished with 64 off 56 balls with 11 fours before he was out caught off Adil Rashid (1-37) near the finish line.

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Al Jazeera and news agencies