Match Details
Arya- The target of 192 was never going to be easy for the home team especially given the huge pockets in the ground. England couldn’t quite get going right from the word go and it became all too much for the middle order as the rate kept climbing at a rate of knots. It was certainly a dominating performance from the South African bowlers, Tabraiz Shamsi in particular who finished with a magnificent five-wicket haul.
It was a sedate start from Roy and Buttler. The latter tried to take on the South African bowling but had to perish of the bowling of Keshav Maharaj. He went too much deep into the crease and ended up outside edging that straight down the throat of the short third-man fielder. There was just no recovery from England as they kept losing wickets on regular intervals and were not able to press on the accelerator.
Anrich Nortje bowled very quickly with the new ball in the powerplay and bagged the prized wicket of Jason Roy with a quick short of a length delivery. Malan couldn’t quite get going either as he was holed out at deep square leg of the bowling of Andile Phehlukwayo. He targeted the long boundary but it was always going to be a tough ask to clear him.
Moeen Ali and Liam Livingstone who had the ability to turn the match on it’s head struggled for timing and couldn’t quite get the big shots in. It was an incredible catch from Tristaan Stubbs to send back Moeen Ali to the pavilion, while Livingstone and Curran were lured into false shots by Tabraiz Shamsi who was not afraid to toss the ball up and challenged the batters to take him on towards the longer boundary.
Jonny Bairstow kept losing his partners at the other end which didn’t really allow him to strike big. They kept falling apart as wickets kept falling in clusters. It was a disappointing effort from the home team as they were eventually skittled out just after crossing the 100 mark. While their Test form has risen to a new level, they have struggled big time in the white ball format. They have to rebuild before the showpiece event in Australia later this year.