South Africa v England, 2nd T20i: Five Things We Learned

South Africa win the T20 series by thumping England by nine wickets in Johannesburg. Here’s what we learned ahead of the World T20…

MAN OF THE DAY – AB DE VILLIERS 71 off 29

The Wanderers ground holds a special place in AB de Villiers’ back catalogue. It is at this ground that he averages 92.28 in nine ODI innings, including his record-breaking 31-ball hundred against the West Indies. Today he added the fastest T20i fifty by a South African to his personal record book. When you have that kind of streak at a venue, simply walking in on a day off must make you feel 10-feet tall. Throw into the fact that you are AB de Villiers and you’re now walking on air. England’s bowlers played into his hands but at the same time there was little else they could do. Eoin Morgan could have changed the pace in the Power Play with Adil Rashid, but there’s every chance we would have also had our first leg spinner on the moon. Nine of the 29 balls de Villiers faced were dots, meaning his runs were actually scored off 20 - 20 balls which featured six fours and six sixes.

14 for 7

A catalogue of misfortune and ineptitude. What was most English about this particular collapse was that it followed a quite brilliant passage of play in which Jos Buttler and Eoin Morgan put on 96 in 50 balls, peppering the top deck in the process. Amazingly, thrice England lost two wickets in consecutive balls, the most absurd being Buttler finding cover before Morgan, backing-up at the nonstriker’s end, was run out as Ben Stokes biffed one at the stumps via a deflection off Kyle Abbott. A work of karma perhaps, after he sold Alex Hales down the river earlier. The most comical moment – and this is up for debate – might have been when Rashid turned the strike over to Reece Topley – a no.11′s eleven – in the final over.

THE EBB AND FLOW OF T20

For just a two-match series, that had a bit of everything. A low-scoring thriller at Cape Town, which featured some excellent bowling displays and a thrilling final over (complete with last-ball cock-up) was followed by some top-notch hitting and quality fielding from South Africa, who took some difficult chances. It’s a common criticism of Twenty20s that they lack the ebb and flow of Test cricket, but that is quite simply not the case. It’s just a shame that England brought the ebb…

WT20 WATCH - ENGLAND

Firstly, the positives: Alex Hales is showing good consistency, Morgan’s getting over a worrying hump and Buttler’s still walking on water. As for the negatives, well, how long do you have? Jason Roy finishes the white-ball tour with just 120 runs in seven innings and looks to have regressed to almost snatching at the ball, something he used to do a lot as a youngster. Chris Jordan followed a good display with 2.4 overs for 48. The decision to leave out David Willey was strange, though it may have been action taken to give Sam Billings some game time. Either way, it seems Morgan and the selectors are not sure of their best XI.

WT20 WATCH - SOUTH AFRICA

The Proteas are set to wrestle with a “good problem to have”. After the show put on by Hashim Amla and AB de Villiers at the top of the order, they will now have to work out where Quinton de Kock fits in their top order plans. The middle order looks a touch flaky (and it could well be who makes way for de Kock) but other than that, David Wiese and Chris Morris have sewn up the allrounders slot, justifying the selectors’ decision not to recall Albie Morkel, while Imran Tahir - man of the series - has turned from fodder to world beater in the space of a fortnight.