ENGLAND v SOUTH AFRICA, WORLD T20: FIVE THINGS

England break records to stun South Africa and successfully chase down a mammoth 230. Here are five things from an epic night in Mumbai…

MAN OF THE DAY – JOE ROOT 83 OFF 44

England’s best multi-format batsman. Nasser Hussain reckons so. Perhaps England’s best of all time. It certainly feels that way right now. When we wake up tomorrow, maybe we won’t be so drunk on runs. But my word, what an innings. The clarity of thought to bat from the sixth to the 19th over, with the required rate in double figures in that time, and keep his cool and shape when hitting shots. To be able to hit boundaries when he needed to and, crucially, keep the score ticking along against Imran Tahir (of his 44 balls, only four were dots). He is operating on a different level: one where seconds turn into minutes, where panicking is not an option. If there was ever one aspect of his game you could question, it’s his ability to hit sixes. But he upper-cut Chris Morris over point for one, reverse swept the same bowler for his third and then nailed a fourth with a picture-perfect lofted straight drive. He now has a greater T20 strike-rate than David Warner, Jos Buttler, AB de Villiers and Brendon McCullum. I for one am happy to welcome Joe Root as our new overlord.

89-3

The foundation for England’s record-breaking chase was constructed by the top three’s work in the Power Play. And most of the praise should be heaped upon Jason Roy (43 off 16). He has endured a torrid six months with the bat, clearly trying to get to grips with a new technique that has him coming at the ball straighter, rather than working inside of it to open up the off side. It looked like this change had curbed his ability to destroy – the sort of destruction that turned the heads of selectors in the first place. Today, it came together. He took four boundaries off the first over, which included crunching the first ball of the chase over mid off for four. Dale Steyn was then sent the same way, before he strayed onto Roy’s pad and was flicked supremely over square leg for the first six of the innings. Kyle Abbott tried to york him and was ramped for another six. His striking shocked South Africa’s bowlers. They never recovered.

EXTRAS – 26

England’s third top-scorer. Yes, really. That tells the story of just how shambolic South Africa’s bowling became. For all the brilliance of the chase, their inability to control their lengths, when the dew was minimal, allowed England to pick and choose their scoring areas. If any pressure was built up, it was relieved with one down leg or a bouncer too high. With Imran Tahir only going at seven, it needed only one other bowler to try and match is discipline. But no one was up to the task. Not even Steyn, whose two overs went for 35!

BUT LETS NOT GET AHEAD OF OURSELVES…

“Special win. Incredible from @JasonRoy20 and @root66. Gonna celebrate by spending the evening reading through Twitter 3 hours ago!” So tweeted Alex Hales. He’s got a point: some of the chat at half-time was a bit over the top. But no one questioned England’s batting – just the grimness with the ball. And, looking at Hales body language during the first innings, he seemed to agree. For the second game running, the seamers were annihilated. Chris Jordan, who went at six an over when Chris Gayle went mad in the previous match, resorted back to his worst with three overs for 49. The worst treatment was saved for Reece Topley, who conceded 33 from two. They should have settled for a consistent plan – death bowling early on wouldn’t have been the worst move, just to at least bring some normality to proceedings. But their ill-discipline had Eoin Morgan tearing his hair out trying to move his fielders about to stem the flow. England have now been on the wrong end of half of the ten highest T20I totals in history. Some effort, that.

IT’S ANYONE’S TROPHY

So the pre-tournament favourites India, Australia and South Africa have all lost their opening matches of the tournament. Meanwhile, New Zealand have got off to a flyer with two wins out of two (they strangled Australia in a low-scoring game by classic by eight runs) lead the way. England will now feel they can chase anything (because they’ve now chased the highest) and Pakistan, who were ruthless against Bangladesh, could heap more misery on the hosts tomorrow in Kolkata. This year’s World T20 has had a lot of issues, but it is steadily turning into a fascinating battle on the field…