AB: Proteas will fight to the death
I EXPECT A GOOD PERFORMANCE IN TAUNTON
Morgan praises his side who didn’t even have to raise a sweat.
Captain AB de Villiers promised South Africa would “fight our way back” after England thrashed them by nine wickets in the first Twenty20 international at Southampton on Wednesday.
After the chastening defeat, which came after their firstround exit at the Champions Trophy, De Villiers said: “It’s not done and dusted.
“We go to Taunton (for today’s second match) and like all South Africans we always fight our way back so I’m expecting a really good performance in the next one.”
South Africa found runs hard to come by against an England side where spinners Liam Dawson and Twenty20 debutant Mason Crane both bowled tightly on their Hampshire home ground.
Young leg-spinner Crane had a particularly encouraging debut with four overs for 24 runs and bowled just one bad ball, his final delivery, a full toss hit for four by De Villiers.
“We know he has the potential and skill level, he has proved that at county level,” said England captain Eoin Morgan of the 20-yearold Crane.
“His skills are good, we know that, it is delivering them against players like De Villiers, who is one of the best of our generation – delivering against him is a task especially when he is coming after you.
“The challenge for him now is if people counter him, how he comes back from it. But they are really good signs for a player coming in.”
The Proteas were reduced to 7/2 from seven balls after electing to bat first and that became 32/3 in the fifth over.
De Villiers (65 not out) and Farhaan Behardien (64 not out) repaired the damage with an unbroken stand of 110 but a total of 142/3 never looked like being enough.
England, led by Jonny Bairstow’s unbeaten 60, raced to their victory target with 33 balls to spare for the loss of one wicket. “The result doesn’t look good for us,” conceded De Villiers. “We lost our way in the first six overs, had to rebuild and that cost us a bit.”
England, resting Joe Root and Ben Stokes, hardly had to break sweat. “It is as close to a complete performance as you can ask for,” said Morgan.
Today’s second match starts at 6pm.