McIlroy’s taking it one step at a time
JONNY Bairstow helped England recover from their Champions Trophy heartbreak with a crushing nine-wicket T20 win over South Africa.
Seven days after England’s semi-final flop against Pakistan in Cardiff, Eoin Morgan’s men cruised to their victory target of 143 with 33 balls to spare.
Although it will not do much to ease the pain of England’s 50-over failure, this was a thrashing in anybody’s language.
Bairstow, who had been parachuted into the one-day team for that Cardiff semi-final following his blistering form this summer, was again the centre of attention.
The Yorkshireman, who finished unbeaten on 60 from 35 balls, was ably supported by Alex Hales, who was left on 47 not out as England ran out of runs to chase.
South Africa, who flopped again on the world stage with a first-round exit from the Champions Trophy, could point to an unbeaten 65 from AB de Villiers and 64 from Farhaan Behardien.
But the fourth-wicket pair’s 110-run stand in 95 balls came far too slowly to set England a testing target.
Both teams, with one eye on their upcoming Test series, rested several key players for this series, which concludes with matches in Taunton tomorrow and Cardiff on Sunday.
For England, Joe Root, Moeen Ali, Adil Rashid, Jake Ball and Ben Stokes all sit these three matches out.
South Africa’s big-name absentees included Faf du Plessis, who has returned home to attend the birth of his first child, Hashim Amla, Quinton de Kock, JP Duminy and Kagiso Rabada.
But it was a man who was a non-playing member of England’s Champions Trophy squad who got this match off to an absolute flier, David Willey bowling novice international opener JJ Smuts with the first ball of the match.
South Africa were 7-2 when Reeza Hendricks hooked the first ball of the second over – bowled by Mark Wood – to midwicket.
David Miller followed at the start of the fifth over, edging Wood behind as South Africa slipped to 32-3.
De Villiers and Behardien took their time to get going, Mason Crane’s first foray into
SPORT IN BRIEF
RORY McILROY heads into a run of three events, including his Irish Open defence, in the next fortnight striving to blank out all thoughts of the Open.
The Ulsterman will squeeze in a practice round next week at Royal Birkdale but, amid his struggles, he is treating this week’s Travelers Championship here in Connecticut, along with the Irish Open and the Scottish Open, as just another few days at the office.
“With everything that has gone on this year, I am taking it week by week,” he said. “I am treating the Irish Open as a week on its own and I will do the same when I get to the Scottish. “I will not turn my attention to Birkdale until after the Scottish Open. “I am going to head up and play Royal Birkdale during next week but that is it until I get down there from competing at Dundonald.” After missing the cut in last week’s US Open, the world No3 is looking to his debut at this week’s £5million event to find some form.