SOUTH AFRICA FURY IN BALL-TAMPERING ROW

Shades of Botham as Stokes top ton sets up Wood’s clinching over

THERE was a touch of Ian Botham’s ability to write his own scripts about Ben Stokes and England at Southampton yesterday as they won a thrilling second one-day international and clinched the series with a last-ball finish.

England’s insistence that Stokes was fit to play despite suffering a knee injury in their opening Royal London victory at Headingley looked justified when he smashed South Africa for his second one-day international century.

Even though England’s talisman then delivered a Bothamesque opening over when he almost claimed a stunning return catch off his first ball and took a wicket with his fifth, the story looked to be heading for an unhappy ending.

Stokes aggravated his injury as soon as he dismissed Hashim Amla and called for treatment from England’s physio before limping his way through three painful overs and then retiring to the outfield. He was a helpless onlooker as South Africa appeared certain to level this three-match series when they needed just 10 runs from the last 10 balls to eclipse England’s 330 for six, with David Miller and Chris Morris cruising home with huge boundaries.

But just when everything seemed lost for England it was another Durham man in Mark Wood who delivered the perfect final over in conceding just four runs off the final six balls to inflict South Africa’s first defeat in eight ODI series.

This series is proving perfect preparation for England ahead of the Champions Trophy as they have twice batted first and now twice defeated the No1 ranked side in world 50-over cricket.

‘ It’s unbelievable really,’ said England captain Eoin Morgan of the win. ‘You talk about clawing the game back through wickets and that’s exactly what we did.’

Yet there will be concern for England about their decision to risk Stokes just five days before the start of the ‘mini World Cup’ even though they took the precaution of resting Chris Woakes with a ‘minor’ muscle injury.

Morgan said: ‘It’s a very strange i njury and i t depends how he [Stokes] pulls up. He’s a guy who likes to play all the time and unless it’s decided it’s a risk to play him next week I think he’ll be fine. I’d already decided three overs was enough for him today before he had treatment.’

There is no problem for Stokes when he is batting as he showed by hitting three sixes in his 101 off 79 balls even though he was almost run out before facing a ball and then dropped off each of his first two balls.

South Africa did their best to assist England with a quite dreadful fielding performance that saw them drop six chances, Morgan being reprieved by two fumbles to rival Stokes as the main beneficiary of the visitors’ generosity.

And t he bad mood of South African captain AB de Villiers was hardly improved immediately after Morgan was dismissed when umpires Rob Bailey and Chris Gaffaney questioned the condition of one of the white balls.

De Villiers’ consternation concerned the officials’ failure to replace the ball, thereby seemingly insinuating that something was amiss with South Africa’s handling of it without having the courage of their convictions to accuse them.

South Africa certainly didn’t need any illegal help in making the ball move early on under the Southampton clouds as England struggled for rhythm in the face of the speed of Kagiso Rabada and the medium-pace of Dwaine Pretorius.

Stokes and Morgan rode their luck before settling to take advantage of South Africa’s shoddy fielding, with debutant spinner Keshav Maharaj being particularly unfortunate not to pick up more than the big wicket of Stokes. That England again went past 300 was almost entirely down to a late assault from Jos Buttler, who returned to form at just the right time ahead of Thursday’s Champions Trophy opener against Bangladesh with a brilliant unbeaten 65.

England again made the most of the last 10 overs, scoring 111 runs off the final 60 balls and Buttler reached new levels of invention with a left-handed pull over point for four in an over from Andile Phehlukwayo that cost 22.

It seemed to be enough when Quinton de Kock fell for 98 and then Farhaan Behardien became t he fifth South African t o be dismissed with 266 on the board but the big hitting Miller and Morris had other ideas.

When Miller smashed Jake Ball for six and four off the first two balls of the penultimate over South Africa looked home and hosed but Morgan bought England valuable time by calling for an ambitious review with seven balls left.

The delay appeared to affect South Africa and Wood, who rivalled Rabada for pace but ended up wicketless, got every ball right in the final over with the pair able to muster just four singles when only seven were needed.

England’s confidence will be growing after this two-run victory ahead of their attempt to win their first 50-over global title. All they need for the script to be complete is for Stokes to be declared fully fit when he has another scan on his left knee before the big day at the Oval next Thursday.