08:32 AM
Wicket!
Roy b Ngidi 9 Ripper! Nips back through the gate as Roy drives and hits the top of off. FOW 27/1
08:30 AM
OVER 5: ENG 27/0 (Roy 9 Malan 12)
Excellent shape from Parnell but a bit too short to trouble the stumps. Roy was preparing to walk when given out but Malan shouted ‘High! High! Refer! Refer!’ After playing and missing at one slanted across him, Roy gets one on the pads and tucks it away for four. The next one bounces a bit higher and consequently comes off the inside edge for only two this time.
08:27 AM
NOT OUT
Yes, too high. It was clearing middle stump.
08:25 AM
England review
Roy lbw b Parnell Nipped back a long way and hit him on the back thighpad. Height?
08:24 AM
OVER 4: ENG 19/0 (Roy 2 Malan 12)
The swing is preventing the openers from driving. Both of them love to plant the big dog down and drill it through the line. But Ngidi’s inswing to the left-hander hasn’t yet found a consistent line and he sprays another on to Malan’s pads. The left-hander tries to tickle it fine, misses but takes four leg-byes off the pad instead.
Malan does attempt a drive, doesn’t time it and the ball squirts off the inside edge. Ngidi floats on into the slot to end the over and Malan thumps him witheringly over midwicket for six!
08:20 AM
NOT OUT
The bat was nowhere near the ball. Marais Erasmus gets very little wrong. SA lose a review.
08:20 AM
SA review
Malan c De Kock b Ngidi They think they’ve strangled him. Looked like pad to me.
08:17 AM
OVER 3: ENG 9/0 (Roy 2 Malan 6)
Swing, too, for Parnell in the corridor to the left-handed Malan but when he drops short Malan cuts into the ground and hares a single.
Roy gets off the mark off his eighth ball streakily with a leading edge. He was aiming to flick it through square leg but ended up with two over cover point. Both bowlers are hooping it.
08:13 AM
OVER 2: ENG 6/0 (Roy 0 Malan 5)
Ngidi comes round the wicket to Malan and pins him halfway up the right shin as the left-hander tries to tickle it round the corner. Big shout but it was angling down. Malan shuffles across to the next one again and plays a wristy flick for four fine. Ngidi is swinging it – to such an extent that after spraying a wide down legside he decides to come over the wicket.
Coming over the wicket allows Ngidi to bring his two slips into play and he keeps the ball in the channel. Malan leaves the firts alone but the next is fuller and he cuffs it through midwicket for a single.
08:09 AM
OVER 1: ENG 0/0 (Roy 0 Malan 0)
Roy defends a couple, misses out on a leg glance and then sends Malan back with some urgency when he fiddles one round the corner to short fine leg. Parnell, back in favour at the age of 33, bowls a nice tight line and some good fielding at point earns him a maiden. Roy looks a little jumpy.
Ngidi, master of the slower ball in the white-ball game, takes the other new pill.
08:06 AM
The players are out
Wayne Parnell has the new ball and the trumpeter purses his lips for Jerusalem. Did you used to be one of the herberts who shouted ‘No!’ at the end of every couplet in morning assembly?
‘And did those feet in ancient times
Walk upon England’s mountains green?’ “No!”
07:45 AM
Will Macpherson reports
Chris Woakes brings some solidity to England’s batting and bowling, but he has been nursing a slight groin issue. Reece Topley back for his first England game since his unfortunate pre-T20 World Cup injury. This plan of rest was always expected for Archer, while Willey looked a bit off-colour to me the other day.
07:41 AM
Your teams
South Africa Quinton de Kock (wk), Temba Bavuma (capt), Rassie van der Dussen, Aiden Markram, Heinrich Klaasen, David Miller, Wayne Parnell, Marco Jansen, Anrich Nortje, Keshav Maharaj, Lungi Ngidi.
England Jason Roy, Dawid Malan, Ben Duckett, Harry Brook, Jos Buttler (capt & wk), Moeen Ali, Sam Curran, Chris Woakes, Adil Rashid, Olly Stone, Reece Topley.
07:38 AM
Sky thinks SA have made one more change
Jansen in for Magala. That’s what the teamsheet says anyway, even if Temba Bavuma didn’t confirm it. Jos Buttler says he’s very happy to bat first. The pitch has the look of one that has been ready for a long time and should be a belter like Friday’s.
07:36 AM
Team changes
For South Africa Rabada and Shamsi sit it out for South Africa and Ngidi and Maharaj take their places.
England rest Archer and Willey; Woakes and Topley come in.
07:34 AM
South Africa have won the toss
And put England in to bat. Bavuma thinks the pitch is on the sticky side and his seamers can exploit that this morning.
07:19 AM
Will Macpherson reports from Bloemfontein
It’s an early start in Bloemfontein but we’re in for a scorcher. Pitch is two over from Friday’s, and looks a belter having been left to bake in the sun yesterday. Expecting a really good crowd (atmosphere was excellent on Friday), and
How on earth did England lose on Friday? It was a pretty limp display from a slightly light looking batting order that will be no more beefy today. The series is on the line here, but England need a win anyway: their ODI cricket, disrupted by the congested schedule, has been a bit off colour for a long while. Jason Roy has got some in the bank, but Jos Buttler and Moeen Ali need runs, too.
01:21 PM
Preview
Good morning and welcome to coverage of England’s second ODI against South Africa at Bloemfontein. In Friday’s day-nighter England’s collapse against Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje and Sisanda Magala after a fine opening stand cost them the match by 27 runs. There were a couple of positives for England – simply getting 10 overs out of Jofra Archer on the first rung of his international comeback, Sam Curran’s shrewdness and skill as a white-ball bowler, some echoes of Liam Plunkett from Olly Stone, a decent knock from Dawid Malan and Jason Roy’s joyful return to form against a very strong attack. It wasn’t simply that he had been written off for this tour, he had been written off altogether after his post 2019 slump. As I wrote 48 hours ago, he did not look so much like a man over come by relief as one who had finally come through an exorcism.
Nevertheless England have won only two of nine ODIs since Jos Buttler took over as full-time captain and have lost four on the bounce. There are a lot of mitigating factors, not least the one highlighted by Ben Stokes, below, but also Jonny Bairstow’s injury, Liam Livingstone’s absence, the need to give Joe Root adequate rest, Stokes’ retirement, Reece Topley’s injury, the loss of Mark Wood and Archer and the fact that two bilateral series, this one and the one against Australia starting four days after England were crowned double world champions, have been approached, understandably, as experiments rather than do or die missions. If they lose all three here but see enough signs to suggest that Stone, for example, would be a useful member of the World Cup squad, they will deem it a success in terms of the process.
South Africa, whose forfeiture of the ODI series against Australia to allow them to use their international players in their relaunched T20 competition, meant that they needed to win their next five ODIs to qualify automatically for the October World Cup. One down, four to go (two against England, two versus Netherlands) and on this Bloemfontein pitch, which has good bounce and carry but is impervious to seam movement, they have the pace attack to move one step closer today. England have such a depth of white-ball talent – and there could be run-outs for Topley, Chris Woakes and possibly Phil Salt in match two – they can beat anyone on any given day. They just need to screw the nut.
Article courtesy of
Source link
