England v South Africa 1st ODI at Headingley September 2nd

Neil Whitaker reports

SOUTH Africa won their first ODI match against England at Headingley in five attempts as they beat them  by seven wickets with 29.5 overs to spare.

After winning the toss South Africa put England  in under  lovely batting conditions and then dismissed them 131 in 24.3 overs.  The chief wicket takers for South Africa were Keshav Maharaj and Wiann Mulder who took seven wickets between them for 55 runs in 12.3 overs.

Jamie Smith top scored for England with 54.  England’s  131 was their lowest score in an ODI match in England since 1975 when they were dismissed for 93 in the Prudential World Cup semi final by Australia at Headingley.

England captain Harry Brook said: “It always hurts when you lose wherever it is, we’ve just got to crack on and put that performance behind us.  There are plenty of learnings that we can take from this match.  We want to be a team that plays the best  cricket all the time. We are a good enough side to have won this match and we could have put a lot more pressure on them.  Nobody wants to watch a game like that.”

England lost an early wicket when Ben Duckett tickled  Nandre Burger to stumper Ryan Rickleton in the third over. On a fast pitch Joe  Root and  Smith added 31  in  five overs before Root edged Lungi Ngidi to  Rickelton who   took a low catch diving to his right and appeared  to drop it and catch it on the rebound.  Rickelton claimed the catch but the umpires weren’t sure and reviewed it but the catch was good.

On 37 Smith swatted Mulder just over Maharaj’s head at mid-on and got another boundary. He drove Mulder to Tristan Stubbs on the cover boundary and was satisfied with a single.  But his captain Brook wasn’t and turned for a second, was sent back by Smith and Brook was run out by six  inches.  England then lost eight  wickets for 49 runs in 10 overs. 

Smith  clipped Maharaj off his legs to the square leg boundary to bring up his 50 from 46 balls with 10 fours.  He added another four when he clipped Mulder off his legs and found Corbin Borsch who ran from fine leg, dove to his left and took the catch with both hands.

Jacob Bethel edged a drive off Maharaj without moving his feet, the ball  ricocheted off Rickleton's pads into the hands of  Aiden Markram at slip.  Maharaj got his second wicket when Will Jacks chipped the ball back to him. 

Jos Buttler drove Mulder straight for a huge six over the long-on boundary. But Mulder had his revenge when he found Buttler’s inside edge to give Rickelton another catch.  Mulder got on an hattrick when Jofra Archer edged the next ball and Markram took a low catch at slip.

Adil Rashid pushed forward at Mahraj was hit on his pads and given out leg before.  Rashid reviewed it and the replay showed it to be hitting. Sonny  Baker on his debut played down the wrong line to the next ball and  was bowled.

Markram hit the fastest 50 in ODI matches by a South African coming from 23 balls with two sixes and eight fours. In the first over South Africa scored 14, but in the second over England thought they had got a wicket when Archer took the outside edge of Rickelton’s bat. Root at first slip wasn’t sure it had carried and neither were the umpires. After an age the  TV umpire Sharfuddoula ruled that the ball had bounced up into Root’s hands.

The opener decided to knock Baker out of the attack and hit 32 from his first two overs including two sixes.  When Baker was taken out of the attack his first four overs running up the hill from the Howard stand  had cost him 46 runs, his first over from the Kirkstall lane end cost him a single and a wide.

Brook added: “Everyone will get behind him, he’s had a tough game but he dug deep and kept running in.”

When it looked Markram would bat through the innings he drove Rashid into the covers when Smith leapt to his right and caught the ball one handed.  A brilliant catch to end a brilliant innings.

Brook said: “The way that they chased down our score was the perfect way to chase down a low target.  I thought that Markram played some unbelievable shots.”

South  African captain Temba Bavuma tried to finish the match, but he chipped Rashid but found Jacks running around from mid-off.  Stubbs, reversed swept the next ball and was bowled round his legs,  Two balls later  Dewald Brevis ended the match when he hit Rashid straight for a six and Rickelton was unbeaten on 31.

Maharaj said: “It was nice to carry the momentum that we had in Australia on.  When we bowled we used that little bit of a breeze to our advantage but I think the run out shifted the momentum.

I love bowling and I have an opportunity to put in some performances and get selected in the T20 squad. Every  game is like a new start and we go back to the drawing board and what areas we can improve on.  We have simple plans. 

England have a strong squad with some new names to us but are still good enough to dominate one day cricket.”

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