(Photo by Julian Herbert/Getty Images)

South Africa yesterday bowed out of the ICC Champions Trophy after the hosts suffered a shocking 22-run defeat to England.

There is no doubt that England played a very positive brand of cricket and deserved their victory but an incident occurred in that match which is very poor for the sport.

South Africa had allowed Owais Shah to be off the field for a large part of the time when England were fielding, but Graeme Smith, South Africa's captain who made a superb 141 appeared to pick up a hamstring injury during his innings was denied a runner by England's captain Andrew Strauss.

Technically if a batsman had picked up an injury during the match it is at the fielding captains discretion if he can get a runner so Strauss has not broken any rules but whether what he has done is in the spirit of the game, is a different question entirely.

If England play to their best then they have an outside chance of upsetting the betting odds and winning their first major title.

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