MALAN’S TASTY STARTER
New boy makes it big to seal series
ENGLAND captain Eoin Morgan got away with taking a day off as his side beat South Africa by 19 runs to win the T20 series 2-1 yesterday.
Morgan left himself out in Cardiff to give Liam Livingstone another chance following his weak debut on Friday in Taunton.
But it was another debutant, Dawid Malan, who saved Morgan’s face with a superb 78 as the rock of England’s strong total of 181-8.
It was the highest-ever score by an England player on his T20 debut and England’s 11th highest score in the format.
And it gave Morgan a perfect excuse after being accused of short-changing the public by loading his side with fringe players.
Former England Test skipper Michael Vaughan tweeted: “Series decider ... and the England Skipper is resting !! ..... Worlds gone mad.”
Fantastic
But Morgan said: “It is very important for the development of the side to see how the youngsters go.
“Given the rotation system we have, it is a shame I have to miss out.
“It is a very difficult situation and I love playing international cricket.”
Morgan was replaced as skipper by Jos Buttler, who said: “Eoin wanted to keep certain players playing and he felt if he missed out he could do that.
“But if I had bought a ticket I would go home thinking I have seen a fantastic game of cricket and have seen England win a series, so you would go home pretty happy.
“Dawid showed by that performance there are some good players really knocking on the door.
“It was a fantastic innings because, having played here before, we knew the wicket was a little bit two-paced.”
None of it could take away the shine off Malan’s match-winning knock from just 44 balls. An unbeaten 125 for England Lions earlier this month brought him back onto the radar and from his second ball yesterday, a huge six over the leg-side boundary, he never looked like missing out.
Livingstone repaid Morgan’s gamble with a first-ball duck but Malan grabbed his chance from the moment Jason Roy fell to leave England 13-1.
The left-hander’s innings contained 12 fours and two sixes.
He put on 115 for the second wicket with Alex Hales, with Malan outscoring his partner by more than two to one.
By the time he was out, hoisting Imran Tahir to long on where Dane Paterson took a catch just inside the ropes, England were 127-3 in the 14th over but ran out of steam.
South Africa only briefly looked capable of chasing down their target of 182, when AB de Villiers was at the crease.
But when he was out for 35, caught in the deep off leg-spinner Mason Crane, the Proteas never got going again.