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

England go 2-0 up in the series with a confident five-wicket win over South Africa in the second ODI at Port Elizabeth. Here’s what we learned…

MAN OF THE DAY – ALEX HALES 99

No other cricketer has 99 in both ODI and T20 internationals, but it would be stupid to malign the lack of one run given how well the 99 were accrued. South Africa won the toss and batted, knowing that the pitch at St George’s Park wouldn’t help those batting second. As such, this wasn’t a typical Hales knock of standing tall through the off side and booming shots across the line. Instead, he had to graft, striking only eight boundaries, safe in the knowledge that he didn’t need to do anything rash faced with a target of just 263. For a player who has had a poor tour so far, a match-winning hand like this will go a long way to remind Hales that he belongs at this level.

TOPLEY GUN (9-1-50-4)

Firstly, sorry for the awful pun. Secondly, this performance best contextualises what Reece Topley offers as a bowler. The ball wasn’t quite coming off the surface as true as a batsmen or express quick would like and the conditions offered swing, but not enough to rely on. It’s in these situations that Topley has excelled domestically: taking matters into his own hands by varying his pace by splitting his fingers across the seam or running them down the side of the ball. His ascension into the team has been aided by the respect those in the changing room have for him: unlike previous ODI sides, this one is made up of players who have played a lot of domestic one day cricket together and know each other’s talents. Even before Topley made his ODI debut, Eoin Morgan spoke publicly of the frustration of not being able to shoehorn the left-arm seamer into his XI. For now, Topley has taken that decision out of his hands.

CRASH NO MORE

A jubilant Morgan claimed that England’s win here shows they are not a “crash, bang, wallop” side. But the truth is that up until the beginning of last summer they were just crash. Car crash, to be exact. When Hales went soon after Ben Stokes had gone for an all-action six-ball duck, you were just waiting for that familiar implosion. Instead, up stepped Jos Buttler – fire in his belly and a £385,000 price tag on his back – to club 48 from 28 balls, which included three sixes in a row off Imran Tahir, and England sailed home with five wickets and almost four overs to spare.

THE SORRY BALLAD OF BEHARDIEN

It’s always harsh to pick on just one player, but nothing sums up South Africa’s muddled approach to limited overs cricket quite like Farhaan Behardien. He doesn’t have the capacity to be a modern number seven – scoring from the off, clearing ropes at will – and his medium pace bowling is uninspiring. If Ben Stokes is the allrounder that “makes things happen”, Behardien is one that calls the neighbours and tells them to keep it down. After failing to launch at the end of his team’s innings, he dropped Moeen Ali in the deep, with England still needing 30 to win. Seven balls later, the match was done.

HOSTS HOPE LIES WITH TOP FIVE

Hashim Amla could do with a score of note, but coming off the back of big runs in the Test series, it’s surely just around the corner. And today, AB de Villiers got a monkey off his back with a knock of substance, top-scoring with 73 off 91 deliveries, while JP Duminy pitched in with 47. Unlike the visitors, they do not have hitters to rely on lower down the order so, if they are to salvage anything from the remaining three ODIs (and they need something in three days time at Centurion) then their top five need to come together and strike 300 between themselves. As the second-half of the first ODI showed, it’s not difficult to really get at this England attack.