By Jonny Saunders BBC Sport, Colombo

If you have been listening to the radio coverage of the Champions Trophy, you'll have heard us banging on about the unbelievable heat and humidity here in Colombo.

On Wednesday, it cost South Africa a place in the final.

Indians handed victory

Poor old Herschelle Gibbs was in agony when he retired hurt having made a splendid 116 off just 119 balls.

Cramp in his hands and fingers after a lengthy stay at the wicket meant he was unable to grip his bat handle.

Gibbs was feeling hot and bothered

With South Africa well placed on 192 for one with 12 overs left he probably thought it was a good idea to leave the field and let the remainder of a strong batting line-up take over.

Oh dear!

This is the same Herschelle Gibbs who in the 1999 World Cup famously 'caught' Australian captain Steve Waugh in the semi-finals of the tournament - only for the umpires to rule that Gibbs had not had control of the ball when he threw it into the air in celebration.

It was a poor piece of judgement then and though this situation was entirely different, he has received a fair bit of criticism.

Some have said he should have carried on, some that he should have gone off earlier.

Lacklustre

Another player to receive a bit of stick is Lance Klusener.

I was really looking forward to watching him bat, remembering his astonishing hitting from the 1999 World Cup.

His form has not been in quite the same class since then but there were several people inside the ground who felt certain that he was the man to launch the final victory assault on the Indians.

Sehwag is emerging as an all-round force

The big hitting we were all expecting never materialized and 14 runs from 21 balls without a single boundary tells its own story.

Retrospect is a marvellous thing, but I suspect Shaun Pollock is rather regretting the fact that he didn't go in ahead of Klusener.

Although South Africa lost the match rather than India winning it, there were some impressive performances from the finalists, none more so than from Virender Sehwag.

He must surely be in the running for player of the tournament.

Having batted in his usual authoritative manner, it was his bowling at the death that most impressed.

If he can perform with the same success against either Australia or Sri Lanka on Sunday, India could well win this tournament.

And that of course would be highly ironic,considering the off the field problems they faced leading up to it.