Key events
Ali Martin’s match report is in the building.
Well, I’m a spent force, and I only had 13 overs to cover. Not for the first time, I’m wondering how on earth the players do it. Our match report will be along shortly. Thanks for your company, correspondence and ideas for clubs that might welcome Alfie Sparrow, our man in Tooting.
The last email on that subject comes from Gary Naylor. “A word of warning to Mr Sparrow,” he begins, gravely. “I moved to Tooting 39 years ago – I’m yet to make my escape… Actually, it’s the London experience at its sharpest, for good and ill, and I wouldn’t live anywhere else now.”
England keep on losing the first match of a series. And South Africa keep on winning it. But not much can be read into this. It was just a romp, staged on a swamp.
So it was, as advertised, a long night and a short game. Under ridiculous pressure, six batters coped very well – and four of them were South African. Aiden Markram showed the way with 28 off 14 balls, and his young blades took the hint. Dewald Brevis smashed 23 off 10, Donovan Ferreira 25 off 11, and Tristan Stubbs 13 off seven. It didn’t matter that the other three SA batters only made three between them.
For England, almost everything that could go wrong did go wrong, with Harry Brook, such a great talent, playing a truly awful innings of none off four balls. Sam Curran did well at the death with 10 off three, but had no support. Only Jos Buttler had really got going with 25 off 11. The old boy stood on the burning deck.
SOUTH AFRICA WIN BY 14 RUNS (DLS)
A single from Curran, a dot from Jacks, and that is that. South Africa were far too good for England, although they also had the better of the conditions – hell, they had a full 7.5 overs to bat.
4.4 overs: England 53-5 (Jacks 1, Curran 9) Jacks can only get a single as he mistimes a full toss. The game is up.
4.3 overs: England 52-5 (Jacks 0, Curran 9) Curran skys his second ball – and it’s dropped! They run three. England need 17 from three balls. Technically possible.
4.2 overs: England 49-4 (Jacks 0, Curran 6) Sam Curran took a wicket with his first ball as a bowler. Now, as a batter, he hits his first ball for six! A lovely swing down the ground.
“Pressure back on South Africa,” says Eoin Morgan, a little optimistically.
WICKET! Banton c Markram b Bosch 5 (England 43-4)
And another! Deceived by a slower ball, Banton chips an easy catch. England need 26 off five balls. Good luck with that.
WICKET! Buttler c Rickelton b Jansen 25 (England 43-3)
4th over: England 43-4 (Banton 5) Curtains for Buttler, and for England! The only batter to get going perishes to a tame end – an inside edge.
3.5 overs: England 43-3 (Buttler 25, Banton 5) Banton produces some finesse! A delicate glide for three. And then Jansen resorts to his bouncer, too high, so it’s a wide. England need 26 from seven balls – all but impossible.
3.4 overs: England 39-3 (Buttler 25, Banton 2) Buttler mis-hits a pull and it’s a dot. Then a single, as another pull is mistimed. England need sixes.
3.2 overs: England 38-3 (Buttler 24, Banton 2) As Jansen continues, Banton takes a tight single, giving the strike to Buttler – who swings for six.
3rd over: England 31-3 (Buttler 18, Banton 1) By a quirk of the rules, Aiden Markram is allowed to use only three bowlers. His third is Corbin Bosch, who is immediately boshed for six by Buttler – a magnificent shot, the flattest of flat pulls. But then Bosch bites back by taking the big wicket of Brook. And he nearly gets Tom Banton too as a review for LBW yields an umpire’s call. SA are cruising to victory, unless Buttler can go bananas. England need 38 from two overs.
WICKET! Brook c Rickelton b Bosch 0 (England 28-3)
Brook finally puts bat on ball, and it’s an even worse shot than the ones he missed. It goes straight up in the air, to be comfortably caught by Ryan Rickelton. There’s such a thing as a captain’s innings, and that was not it.
2nd over: England 21-2 (Buttler 10, Brook 0) Harry Brook starts, naturally, with his falling ramp. And misses. Marco Jansen, possibly irritated by this, gives him a hell of a bouncer – which goes for four byes. Brook does well not to be decapitated by it, but he may be ruffled, as he misses his next slog. He has none off three. Buttler, meanwhile, watched that whole over from the other end. SA well on top.
WICKET! Bethell c Ferreira b Jansen 7 (England 17-2)
Bethell swings a six over fine leg, like David Gower – but then sends a top edge straight to cover.
1st over: England 11-1 (Buttler 10, Bethell 1) Hit out or get out, they say – and Salt managed both at once. In comes Jacob Bethell, fresh from his first senior hundred. Hurried by Rabada, he manages to nudge a single. Jos Buttler misses out with his first ramp, then belts a four down the ground, hits his second ramp for six, and misses with his third. So Rabada does get out without conceding the asking rate of 14 or so. A bit of pressure on Bethell now … with only three balls left in the powerplay.
WICKET! Salt c Maphaka b Rabada 0 (England 0-1)
Rabada, like Sam Curran, strikes with his first ball! Salt flicks straight to the man at long leg.
Kagiso Rabada has the new ball. And all he has to do is get through an over for 13 runs or fewer.
The hover cover is reluctantly leaving the stage. And Phil Salt and Jos Buttler are waiting by the Toblerone, wondering if they can afford a single dot ball.
England need 69 off five overs!
Yes, SA’s innings is over. Play will resume at 9.48pm, in about ten minutes, and England will have five overs to chase 69. More than two runs a ball, which is always a big ask.
Let’s hope that’s not the end of the match. It may well be the end of the South African innings, which was very good while it lasted. Markram set the tone with a muscular 28 off 14 balls, and when the powerplay ended the younger batters just laid on catching practice for the crowd. Stubbs managed a four, but Brevis and Ferreira only had eyes for sixes – and they collected three each. Wickets fell regularly once England held onto their catches, but the South Africans weren’t bothered because they were either starting well (all of the above) or getting out early (Rickelton, Pretorius). I know nothing at all about nine-over cricket, but this feels like a winning score.
Rain stops play!
7.5 overs: South Africa 97-5 (Ferreira 25, Jansen 1) There’s just time for Ferreira to hit another six, as if teeing off at the second hole. And they’re off, as it’s now pouring again.
WICKET! Stubbs b Overton 13 (SA 90-5)
I take it back! Overton defeats Stubbs with an expert yorker.
7.1 overs: South Africa 90-4 (Ferreira 19, Stubbs 13) Brook decides to give Jamie Overton a second over. Hmm – he can be quite hittable… and his first ball is ramped for six by Stubbs!
7th over: South Africa 84-4 (Ferreira 19, Stubbs 7) England’s problem is that when they one young South Africa blaster departs, another strides in to take his place. Tristan Stubbs joins the fun right away with a flash for four. Donovan Ferreira has 19 off 10 balls, and he’s only the fourth-fastest scorer in this innings.
WICKET! Brevis c Dawson b Curran 23 (SA 73-4)
Sam Curran is back, baby, back,. He strikes with his first ball! Brevis, bamboozled by a slow balloon, can only chip it to Dawson at backward point.
6th over: South Africa 73-3 (Brevis 23, Ferreira 15) Brevis’s eye is now so in that he can even hit Rashid for six – not straight but square, to the long boundary. Ferreira sees him and says he’ll have a bit of that too – six, and another six. Twenty off the over, and this partnership is already 36 (off 14).
5th over: South Africa 53-3 (Brevis 16, Ferreira 2) Brook, encouraged by that over, goes for spin at both ends. This means Liam Dawson has the short straw, aka the short straight boundary. Dewald Brevis’s eyes light up and he hits a masive straight six, followed by a more ordinary six. Dawson recovers well (dot, one, one), but SA are back in the driving seat.
4th over: South Africa 38-3 (Brevis 3, Ferreira 1) That’s a typically excellent over from Adil Rashid: six balls, four runs, one big wicket.
WICKET! Markram c Wood b Rashid 28 (SA 36-2)
No mistake this time. Markram launches another of his top edges into the night sky. It falls kindly for Luke Wood at midwicket, and he keeps calm and dismisses South Africa’s main man.
If you’re an England fan, you can relax. Adil Rashid is coming on.
3rd over: South Africa 34-2 (Markram 26, Brevis 1) So Luke Wood has both the wickets to fall so far. And he finishes with 2-0-21-2.
WICKET! Pretorius c Brook b Wood 2 (SA 33-2)
That’s how it’s done! Harry Brook takes a superb diving catch at mid-off to see off the teenaged Pretorius. It’s all happening.
