Match Details
Arya- It was England skipper Jos Buttler who won the toss earlier in the day and decided to chase. He wanted his team to get accustomed to a different set of challenges that they might face in the upcoming T20 World Cup. Reeze Hendricks and Quinton de Kock started off brilliantly and got South Africa off to a flying start. Both the batters decided to step on the accelerator and get as many runs as possible in the powerplay. De Kock was eventually dismissed by Moeen Ali in an attempt to clear the mid-on fielder.
From there on, it was a run-fest for South Africa as Rilley Rossouw and Reeza Hendricks gave some hard time to the England bowlers. They batted sensibly on occasions and whenever there was a delivery in their range, they went after that and succeeded on most occasions. It was a great partnership which set the platform for a massive total. Hendricks continued his great form and scored his second half-century on a trot. Rossouw was in a dismissive mood and made great use of the short boundaries.
A 73 runs partnership came to an end when Gleeson bagged the wicket of Hendricks as England hoped that the run flow can be stalled. However, Rossouw was still there and was joined by Heinrich Klaassen at the crease. Klaassen also got off to a great start courtesy some fine hitting early on but the main damage was being done at the other end by Rossouw. It was hitting of the highest order as the left-hander targeted the short boundaries and kept clearing it consistently.
Klaassen was dismissed after making 18 as Chris Jordan held his nerves and bowled an off-pace delivery and Klaassen couldn’t quite get the timing over the cover fielder. However, Rossouw was hitting the long ball and would have certainly hoped Tristan Stubbs to launch from the other end. He struck a six and a four but couldn’t time the ball anywhere close to what he was doing yesterday. Chris Jordan bowled a sensational final over which kept Rossouw agonisingly short of the century mark. He eventually remained unbeaten on 96, an innings which included 10 fours and 5 sixes.
Arya- England needed to get off to a great start if they had to harbour hopes of chasing this massive target down but with their batting order, they would have backed themselves to chase this down. Roy couldn’t get the gaps in the powerplay but Buttler launched into Phehlukwayo in his first over, as he was spanked for two sixes and a four before he came back brilliantly and got the prized wicket of Buttler.
Dawid Malan couldn’t quite bother the scorers much as he was dismissed by Keshav Maharaj with a darter on the leg stump and he ended up top-edging that straight down the throat of the keeper. Jason Roy was joined by Moeen Ali and he got off to a great start yet again. However, Roy kept struggling at the other end and eventually played a false shot of Tabraiz Shamsi’s bowling and was holed out at long-off.
Moeen Ali was dismissed soon after by the left-arm chinaman bowler as he tried to club one flatter trajectory delivery down the ground and ended up slicing that straight down the throat of the long-off fielder. He bagged one more in that very over as Sam Curran also fell prey to his guile and disguise. He shortened his length after seeing Curran step down the track and eventually it was an easy catch for Maharaj at long-off.
Jonny Bairstow and Liam Livingstone kept England in the hunt with some lusty blows but the target was still too far away and they needed to strike big on a consistent basis. Bairstow was eventually dismissed by Rabada on 30 as he tried to keep up the momentum but faltered. Livingstone was also dismissed soon after by Phehlukwayo as he persisted with the wide line and it paid off. It was a formality for South Africa from there on as Lungi Ngidi bagged two wickets in his final over to hand South Africa a comfortable 58 runs victory.