Jonny shows true class again!
EOINMorgan rated this as a near-perfect performance and it certainly was an emphatic response to England’s Champions Trophy failure.
This crushing nine-wicket T20 win against an outof-sorts and strangely subdued South Africa will offer scant consolation to those who were part of that semi-final defeat against Pakistan in Cardiff seven days earlier.
But the manner of this victory – England chasing down their target of 143 with 33 balls to spare on the back of another fine Jonny Bairstow innings – at least put the international summer back on a positive footing.
South Africa’s total always looked below par on a true Southampton pitch.
Some excellent bowling, not least from debutant leg-spinner Mason Crane, played its part in that.
If this had been a 50-over match, the 110-run partnership in 95 balls between AB de Villiers and Farhaan Behardien would have been the perfect response to their side falling to 32-3 in the fifth over.
However, in the cut-and-thrust of T20 cricket it proved their team’s downfall, with De Villiers lurching from the ridiculous to the sublime during a scatty innings of 65 from 58 balls.
In reply, England showed their opponents how it should be done, hitting 18 boundaries as Jason Roy, with 28 from 14 balls, Alex Hales, stranded on 47 not out at the end, and Bairstow, unbeaten on 60 from 35 deliveries, completed victory in 14.3 overs.
“It was as good a performance as you can ask for,” said Morgan.
“I thought the bowlers did an unbelievable job and the way we batted dictated things. Jonny is quality. He does it every time, he gees himself up and to produce on the back of that is remarkable – it is great for our squad.”
Bairstow’s position in England’s white-ball teams is a strange one. He has struggled to find a regular place in the 50- over XI despite some excellent performances when called upon.
The Yorkshireman did replace Roy as an opener for that Champions Trophy semi-final defeat last week, when he struck 43.
That followed one-day halfcenturies at Lord’s against South Africa and Ireland this summer, not to mention his 174 for Yorkshire against Durham in the Royal London One-Day Cup.
Quite frankly, Bairstow’s in the form of his life and this latest knock offers more compelling evidence that a regular place needs to be found for him in both England’s one-day and T20 teams.
“I’m trying to progress all the time and I played a few shots I didn’t have a few months ago,” said Bairstow. “With that, comes confidence. I’m feeling good.”
Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Moeen Ali, Adil Rashid and Jake Ball are sitting out these three T20s ahead of the upcoming Test series against South Africa, meaning an opportunity for some new faces.
This opening game offered
Crane, the 20-year-old Hampshire leg-spinner, the chance to make his international debut. He did not disappoint.
Crane’s four overs went for just 24 runs, with only one bad ball sent down – his last, a full toss, that De Villiers crunched for four. “We know Mason’s got potential,” said Morgan.
“His skills are good, but delivering them against AB, who is one of the best players of our generation, is quite a task especially when he is trying to get after you.
“At no stage did he get hold of him, he handled it well and there were really good signs for a young guy coming in.”
Crane and Liam Dawson, his fellow spinner and Hampshire team-mate, slowed down De Villiers and Behardien, who finished unbeaten on 64 from 52 balls, during the middle phase of the innings.
Their contributions proved key after England’s opening bowlers had made early inroads.
David Willey, the left-armer who was a non-playing squad member of England’s Champ- ions Trophy squad, had bowled opener JJ Smuts, playing just his fifth T20 international, with the first ball of the match.
Mark Wood then had Reeza Hendricks caught at mid-wicket off the first ball of the second over.
Wood, who has returned to Durham after only being made available for this first T20, then dismissed the dangerous David Miller with the first ball of the fifth over, a lightning-quick delivery that was edged behind.
De Villiers and Behardien then took over but never took off as South Africa fell at least 30 runs short of a total that might have tested England.
The tourists, recovering from their own Champions Trophy failure after they were eliminated in the first round, are missing key players of their own for these T20s – Faf du Plessis, their captain who has returned home to attend the birth of his first child, Hashim Amla, Quinton de Kock, JP Duminy and Kagiso Rabada.
This performance, though, could not be excused by those absences. They were simply outclassed by the better team.