South Africa v England, 1st T20i: Five Things We Learned

England lost the first of two T20 internationals against South Africa, as a dramatic encounter at Cape Town saw the hosts sneak home by three wickets off the last delivery. Here’s what we learned…

MAN OF THE DAY - IMRAN TAHIR 4-0-21-4

It’s not easy praising Imran Tahir when his celebrations amount to the sort of self-congratulating that Prince once allegedly tried. Without wishing to dig up old ground here, some find it endearing while others (most, to be fair) are put off by the over-exuberant rushes towards the stand, arms out wide embracing the heavens for a top edge caught at deep square leg. In the short term, it’ll take the shine off what he achieves. But cricket being cricket, history will have his back. After this innings, his T20i average dropped to 14.4 - the lowest of any bowler who has taken 30 ore more wickets. And then there was the ball of the day – a googly to off-set Ben Stokes – and the manner in which he found assistance from the pitch and managed to quicken his pace without losing much sideways movement to return two-overs worth of dot balls. South Africa’s World T20 chances live and die by their over-exuberant spinner.

43-5

That was a blast from the past – a very 2004 England team collapse, as they got caught up in the format and going too hard. We saw this in the ODI series and, of course, it wasn’t going to be any different in the T20s. It was the top order collapse that done it: Root trying to be too cute, Morgan trying to be heave-ho and Stokes losing his balance in defence. More criminal was Adil Rashid, with Jos Buttler at the other end, carving to backward point instead of looking to get England’s star attraction on strike.

JORDAN GETS IT “RIGHT” (4-0-23-3)

On another day, AB de Villiers carts over square leg for six. Later, David Miller would clear long on for another. A bit contrived, I’ll admit, but there’s a feeling with Chris Jordan that the margins between the highs and the lows are very small. Nothing summed that up more than his 0 for 39 in the final T20i against Pakistan, followed immediately by a Super Over of perfect yorkers that saw him take one for three. He still doesn’t seem reliable enough to have made it into England’s World T20 squad ahead of Chris Woakes but his performance here, as he kept things simple and quick, while not trying to be too smart with his short deliveries, was a silver-lining from a demoralising loss.

PROTEA BALANCE

There has been a lot of doom and gloom around South African cricket recently after the Test side relinquished their number one ranking it pitiful fashion. And there didn’t seem much encouragement for their white ball sides after England comprehensively won the first two ODIs. But, what do you know, four wins on the bounce and the landscape has completely change for both teams. The most crucial aspect for the hosts has been the emergence of fringe players like David Wiese and, to an extent, Chris Morris. The latter has shown glimpses of brilliance that belie the gangly physique, while Wiese provides a level of consistency with the ball that Faf du Plessis used brilliantly, bowling him through from the eighth over.

OH REECE

Poor Reece Topley. It’s easy to say that he should have gathered the last ball of the match cleanly (because, you know, he should’ve). This was perhaps the most pressurised environment he would have experienced in an England shirt: a partisan Newlands crowd on a Friday night, shaking the stadium with their yelping and anticipation, imploring a basic misdemeanour from a bowler who had just conceded 13 from his previous five balls. The mind wanders back to Stuart Broad’s costly last over and last ball cock up against Netherlands in the 2009 World T20. The best that can happen is for Topley to bank this as experience.