Roy’s bizarre exit turns match S Africa’s way
taunton — Jason Roy’s bizarre dismissal turned the second Twenty20 international’s South Africa’s way as the Proteas won by just three runs at Taunton on Friday.
The narrow victory at Somerset’s headquarters saw South Africa level the three-match series at 1-1 as bounced back from a nine-wicket defeat by England at Southampton two days earlier to set-up a winnertakes-all clash in Cardiff on Sunday.
England were on course for an unbeatable 2-0 lead while Roy (67) and Jonny Bairstow (47) shared a second-wicket stand of 110.
But when Roy was given out obstructing the field — the first time this had happened in a T20 international — the innings fell away.
England’s cause was not helped by batting second under increasingly dark skies in a match that started at 4pm despite a lack of floodlights on the ground, although home skipper Eoin Morgan did field first after winning the toss.
A target of 12 off the last over became four off the last ball after Liam Dawson hit Andile Phehlukwayo for a boundary.
But he could not repeat the trick and South Africa had a moraleboosting victory to follow their first-round exit at the 50-over Champions Trophy, with this win achieved despite the absence of coach Russell Domingo, who had flown home after his mother was involved in a traffic accident.
Durban-born Roy, dropped from England’s Champions Trophy semifinal loss to Pakistan after a run of low scores, was in superb form.
He struck nine fours and went to his fifty with a six against spinner Tabraiz Shamsi.
Bairstow fell first, chipping manof-the-match Chris Morris (two for 18) to mid-on. And then came the turning point. Roy veered dramatically off a straight course, with the result he placed himself between the incoming throw from Phehlukwayo, which hit him on the heel, and the stumps.
South Africa appealed and, after on-field umpires Rob Bailey and Michael Gough referred the decision, Roy was given out by TV umpire Tim Robinson, the former England opening batsman.
Roy was clearly aghast but Morgan insisted it had been a “50-50 call”.
England still had batting to come after Roy’s exit. But Somerset ‘old boy’ Jos Buttler, now at Lancashire, was yorked by Phehlukwayo for 10 and Morgan (six) was well caught in the gloom by de Villiers.
England, who had been 133 for two at the start of the 16th over, lost four wickets for 34 runs before finishing on 171 for six.
Earlier, Cape Town-born Tom Curran, a Surrey team-mate of Roy, marked his England debut with an impressive three for 33 in his maximum allowed four overs. South Africa’s total of 174 for eight, de Villiers’ top-scoring with 46, was a significant improvement on Wednesday’s 142 for three. —