Bairstow blitzes South Africa
England got back on the horse after their Champions Trophy tumble in the most emphatic way last night when they hammered shambolic South africa in the first Twenty20 international.
a golden opportunity was wasted when England froze against eventual champions Pakistan at Cardiff in the semi-finals of a tournament they desperately wanted to win.
But normal service was resumed here in Southampton, with England utterly dominant even though they have rested big guns Ben Stokes, Joe Root, Moeen ali and adil Rashid for this threematch series.
South africa had a shocker to go out of the Trophy in the group stages and their own weakened side were simply outclassed by an England team who handed a debut to promising 20- year- old leg-spinner Mason Crane.
And, as he usually does, Jonny Bairstow took advantage of the absence of others to smash an unbeaten 60 from 35 balls as England romped past South africa’s woefully below-par 142 for three with 33 balls to spare.
‘It was as close to a complete performance as we could ask for,’ said England captain Eoin Morgan. ‘The bowlers did an unbelievable job and then the way we came out to bat dictated how the match was going to go.’
So excited are England about Crane they are already talking of him playing Test cricket this summer and perhaps even returning to australia, where he made such an impression for new South Wales last winter, for the ashes. The young leg-spinner, who lives a stone’s throw from his home ageas Bowl ground, certainly did not appear overawed up against one of the greats in AB de Villiers, after just five Twenty20 matches for Hampshire.
England made the best possible start when david Willey swung one through JJ Smuts with the very first ball of the match and Mark Wood followed it by dismissing Reeza Hendricks with his own first delivery.
When david Miller became the second victim for the hostile Wood, South Africa were in big trouble. Much rested on their captain but de Villiers is looking a shadow of his old self and he struggled to time the ball in the face of excellent bowling in tandem from Hampshire’s contrasting spinners Crane and Liam Dawson.
The left-arm Dawson went for just 17 runs from his four overs while England will be delighted with their first glimpse of Crane, whose action is more like his Australian mentor Stuart Macgill than his hero Shane Warne.
Crane conceded just 24 and will only be disappointed with his last ball, a full toss that was deposited for four by de Villiers as South africa struggled to find any sort of fluency.
‘His skills are good, we know that,’ said Morgan of the debutant. ‘But it’s quite a task to deliver them against one of the best players of our generation in AB de Villiers. And he managed that today. There were very good signs.’
Vintage bursts of De Villiers, which saw him pull Willey over his shoulder for six and swing Chris Jordan into the stands, saw the South african captain creep up to an unbeaten 65 off 58 balls. But it was too little too late.
No England batsman was more in need of runs than Jason Roy, who was quickly reinstated after losing his place to Bairstow for the Champions Trophy semi-final. Roy was back in the runs with 92 for Surrey in the Royal london Cup semi- final against Worcestershire and looked to have returned to his best when he smashed 19 of the 23 that came off the fourth over from Wayne Parnell.
But just when Roy looked set to go big he aimed a pre-meditated reverse sweep off Andile Phehlukwayo’s first ball and was palpably lbw. It was the only setback.
Bairstow again showed why he really should be an England regular in all formats in an unbroken partnership of 98 with alex Hales. not that Morgan would guarantee Bairstow that elusive place. ‘We’ll have to see how things pan out,’ said the England captain.
England head to Taunton for tomorrow’s second game with smiles back on their faces. For South africa a long tour ahead is beginning to loom.