Virat Kohli hailed India's focused bowling and fielding displays as his side thrashed South Africa to book a spot in the semifinals of the Champions Trophy.
The next day, Sri Lanka, who had been swatted away like a gnat by South Africa, ran down India's 321 for 6 easily - Angelo Mathews so cool in the final overs, he practically had a cigar between his lips, and a drink in one hand.
South Africa responded with back-to-back maiden overs but consecutive boundaries for Dhawan just about kept India on course.
Faf du Plessis and AB de Villiers showed more trust in the pace of the wicket by playing shots on the rise but in a bid to stamp their urgency, saw a wicket fall.
Quinton de Kock's 53 was the only score of any substance from the spineless South Africans, who had three men run out in a wretched performance.
De Villiers has endured a torrid time with the bat so far, making 4 against Sri Lanka, bagging the first golden duck of his career against Pakistan and scoring 16 against India in a must-win game today.
Whichever team triumphs will join title-holder India as one of the two Group B qualifiers for the semifinals of a tournament featuring the world's top eight one-day global teams.
But it wasn't enough, again, and South Africa crashed out in the first round on Sunday at The Oval, sent home by India for a third time in tournament history.
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They were bowled out for just 74 by England in a group match in Adelaide before rain spared Pakistan a defeat that would have stopped them getting to the semi-finals.
The lazy, obvious answer is choke, but even if they were timid on the day, it was not quite what South Africa did.
Pakistan suffered a 124-run thrashing at the hands of arch-rivals and defending champions India but then notched up an upset win over world number one side South Africa to stay alive. Bumrah and Bhuvnesh Kumar secured 2 wickets each. You know, I am really delighted for all the bowlers to have executed their plans well in such a big game. Amla, at the other end, typically dropped anchor and South Africa struggled to get going.
Amla looked edgy in the initial phase but started to settle down before his 35 from 54 ball knock was brought to an end by Ravichandran Ashwin, who replaced Umesh Yadav for the match. I don't think we lost it there with composure. "We are always like that, and I love it", he said.
In the recently-concluded IPL, we have watched Dhoni affecting a couple of stumpings off AB de Villiers.
"There will be a lot of things discussed, what went wrong and what combinations we can come out with in the next game. It was a complete performance in the field - we grabbed the chances that came our way", captain Kohli said at the presentation ceremony.
De Villiers has averaged 6.66 in the elite tournament.
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