France were also without several front-line players but were ultimately too good and will now face either Serbia or Spain in the semi-finals in September.
In Brisbane, Steve Johnson and Jack Sock kept American hopes alive with a 3-6, 6-3, 6-2, 2-6, 6-3 win over Australia's John Peers and Sam Groth.
Serbia followed France into the last four when Viktor Troicki and Nenad Zimonjic ousted Pablo Carreno Busta 4-6, 7-6, 6-0, 4-6, 6-2 in a gruelling five-set thriller at the Aleksandar Nikolic Arena in Belgrade.
France reached their fifth Davis Cup semi-finals in eight years on Saturday when Nicolas Mahut and Julien Benneteau defeated Jamie Murray and Dominic Inglot for an unassailable 3-0 lead over Britain.
Mahut was robbed of his Wimbledon-winning partner Pierre-Hugues Herbert through injury but Benneteau was hardly a weak substitute. We've had lots of good days and these ones don't feel as good.
Britain have won 17 of their last 19 doubles rubbers - only America's Bryan brothers have been able to beat them in that period. EPA/TATYANA ZENKOVICHRuben Bemelmans of Belgium in action against Simone Bolelli and Andreas Seppi of during the doubles match of the tennis Davis Cup World Group quarterfinal tie between Belgium and Italy, in Charleroi, Belgium, 08 April 2017.
IPL 2017: KXIP vs RCB; DeVilliers likely to feature in today's encounter
De Villiers also hit three fours and despite starting slowly, showed his masterful class of playing strokes all around the wicket. KXIP might have dropped Swapnil Singh, a left-arm spinner, and brought in Varun Aaron keeping Gayle in mind.
Their win, and Jeremy Chardy's on Friday, justified captain Yannick Noah's disputed selections.
"It's really incredible, it gives you goosebumps", Benneteau said.
At 5-4 in the third set, and with Britain serving to stay in the match, Mahut somehow returned two big smashes on the first point.
India's Ramkumar Ramanathan and Prajnesh Gunneswaran clinched back-to-back victories for their country against the Uzbeks in the singles rubbers played in Bangalore.
That experience proved crucial for a home side who went into the quarter-final without their leading singles players, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Gael Monfils and Richard Gasquet. His only win since, though, came in the first round of Indian Wells, where he went on to take Novak Djokovic to a second-set tie-break.
He had not played a match of any sort on the red stuff since the summer of 2014 and has made no secret of his dislike for it.
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