England win thriller to level T20 series

DURBAN: England’s Tom Curran took two wickets with the last two balls of the match as they beat South Africa by two runs in a T20 international that produced over 400 runs on Friday as the tourists levelled the series at 1-1 with one game to play.

South Africa needed three off the last two balls but Curran, who had just been smashed for 12 runs in three by Dwaine Pretorius, got him lbw then had Bjorn Fortuin caught off the final ball to cap off a day of almost unrelenting excitement and set up a thrilling decider in Centurion on Sunday.

“The performance and level of intensity was improved,” said England captain Eoin Morgan. “The standout for us was Moeen Ali. To come in and strike the ball like that was such a match-winning innings. Chris Jordan was outstanding. He leads the attack, has calm head and delivers when it matters.”

Man of the match Moeen added: “It was nice to go out and middle a few to get going and then I went on instinct to put pressure on the bowlers.”

England got off to a great start through Jason Roy (40) and Johnny Bairstow (35) before Ben Stokes (47*) and Moeen took charge (39 off 11 balls) to help reach 204-7.

APEX COUNCIL MEETING ON SUNDAY

Newdelhi:finalising calendar for 2020-21 home season, appointment of ethics officer and release of funds to Indian Cricketers’ Association (ICA) will be among the items on agenda at BCCI’S second Apex Council meeting here on Sunday. Justice D K Jain was appointed the BCCI’S firstever ombudsman in February last year on a one-year term and he also doubled up as its ethics officer, overseeing some highprofile conflict of interest cases,including against Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman and Kapil Dev.