One Day action
England beat South Africa 2-1
This series was always going to be set in the context of how it left England heading into the Champions Trophy. Yet beating South Africa across three matches stands in its own right as this one-day team’s best result in the two years since the last World Cup.
Much has been achieved by Eoin Morgan’s men during their startling upturn in limited-overs fortunes since then – not least a world-record total of 444-3 against Pakistan at Trent Bridge last summer.
Yet before this they had failed to beat any of the top-three ranked ODI teams in the world over the course of a series. Australia (at home in 2015), South Africa (away last year) and India (also away in January) all managed to get the better of them.
This, though, was the first time England had seen off one of the big guns – and they get no bigger than South Africa considering they are the team currently ranked No.1.
England will hope in the coming weeks and months it is the performance of Mark Wood in Southampton rather than their startling collapse in the final ODI at Lord’s that will carry the most significance.
Wood has been a revelation since breaking onto the international scene two summers ago. But a succession of injuries to his left ankle – and three operations inside a year – curtailed his involvement.
His ability to bowl raw pace and his low trajectory offer a point of difference for this England one-day attack.
But the ability to hold his nerve and get his team over the line at the death – as he did in the second ODI at Southampton – is an even bigger attribute.
England, powered by Ben Stokes’ second ODI hundred and Jos Buttler’s first half-century in nine matches, managed to overcome a slow start to set South Africa a target of 331 to win at the Ageas Bowl.Yet the tourists were well on their way to chasing down that target after Quinton de Kock’s magnificent 98, a 53rd ODI half-century from captain AB de Villiers, and then a power-packed innings from David Miller.
South Africa were strong favourites to level the series at 1-1 when they went into the final over needing just seven to win. But Wood produced a magnificent over of death bowling to restrict the Proteas to just four runs, leaving Miller stranded on 71 not out and his team defeated by two runs.
Wood had won England the series with a game to spare and his captain was delighted with a performance that suggested his team could cope with the pressure moments in the big games they have coming up.
Morgan said: “Those are the sort of games you really want to win, you learn a lot more from these games.
“It really got away from us for a while but Mark Wood coming up with the goods at the end was awesome. The Champions Trophy is bound to be tight so this preparation is ideal.
“Woody usually bowls yorkers but he adjusted to the conditions at the end with the short ball and it was really impressive. Given the conditions we batted under early on it was difficult to get going but we did fantastic after that. It was a great century from Ben Stokes and good to see Jos Buttler getting runs before the Champions Trophy.”
Any optimism after that nail-biting victory was tempered somewhat by a horrendous batting display two days later in the series finale at Lord’s, where England slumped to 20-6 after five overs and were easily beaten by seven wickets after eventually posting 153.
This, of course, was a dead rubber and Wood was one of five players, along with Stokes, Chris Woakes, Moeen Ali and Liam Plunkett, to be rested.
Morgan, whose side had suffered the worst top-order collapse in ODI history, complained afterwards that the Lord’s pitch was more suitable for Test cricket. Overcast conditions also helped the South Africans, particularly Kagiso Rabada, who finished with 4-39.
“I don’t think it was a one-day international wicket to be honest,” said Morgan. “I’d be disappointed if we came across pitches like that in the Champions Trophy because any side that bats first has the potential to lose the game on the toss and in a major tournament it would be hard to take. It makes it one-sided, which I don’t think is good for anybody.”
Jonny Bairstow again showed his ability to slot into the XI as a stand-in by scoring another half-century to go with the one he made against Ireland on the same ground earlier in the month.
There was also a promising debut for Middlesex seamer Toby Roland-Jones, who hit an unbeaten 37 to help get England’s total past 150 and then claimed Hashim Amla as his maiden international wicket.