REECE IN PIECES
Despair as Topley’s final-ball blunder seals England loss
ENGLAND suffered Twenty20 heartache last night when South Africa edged a nail- biter after Reece Topley had agonisingly fumbled a straightforward run out chance off the final ball.
The youngest member of England’s inexperienced limited-overs side kicked the ball away in despair after he failed to collect a throw from Joe Root that should have resulted in Kyle Abbott’s dismissal and a tie.
That, with two needed off the last ball, would have led to a super over. Instead, another example of the sloppy fielding that has dismayed Trevor Bayliss haunted England and South Africa took a 1-0 lead with only tomorrow’s match in Johannesburg to come.
It was cruel on Topley, who turns 22 on Monday, as he was narrowly unable to defend the 15 runs South Africa needed off the final over.
Chris Morris was South Africa’s star in the fourth one-dayer and he did it again here by hitting 14 of the 15 required off that last over, depositing Topley into the stands for what was, in effect, a matchwinning six off the third ball.
England captain Eoin Morgan said: ‘It would be very unfair to blame Reece. There was no bowler who let himself down here. We lost the game with the bat because we didn’t do the basics of adjusting to the pitch. We let ourselves down with a lack of awareness.’
The day had begun in somewhat farcical fashion for England when Alex Hales turned up in a borrowed shirt. It looked like they had fallen well short of a competitive target when they once again gave away too many soft wickets.
Hales, known as Sloppy Al to his team-mates, was late putting his kit into the laundry at England’s Cape Town hotelht l and dh had dt to taketk the field wearing a shirt borrowed from Chris Woakes with tape covering the name and number.
It was dopey behaviour that has thankfully not been replicated in Hales’ batting on the limited-overs leg of this tour. He got England off to a superb start in partnership with Jason Roy as the pair raced to 38 off the first 22 balls.
The dismissal of Roy was greeted both by the arrival of Hales’ own shirt and a change of policy from the South African bowlers, who realised they should try to take as much pace off the ball as possible on a used Newlands pitch.
Yet it was the introduction of legspinner Imran Tahir — a hapless figure in the first three one- day internationals — that turned the tables in South Africa’s favour.
First, Hales was brilliantly caught off Tahir by JP Duminy, who managed to keep hold of the ball despite being virtually rugby tackled by team-mate Kagiso Rabada in a mix-up that could easily have led to serious injury.
The only thing hurt was England’s pride as they continued to bat recklessly against Tahir, who celebrated the wickets of Ben Stokes, Eoin Morgan and Moeen Ali with his customary gusto.
Only Jos Buttler was able to hold England together but the crash of wickets meant he was unable to fully flex his muscles. Instead, he had to guide England through to their disappointing 134 for eight with an unbeaten 32.
There was to be a blemish on Buttler’s performance when he missed a catch off Hashim Amla on 14 from Topley’s bowling.
Bayliss would not have been impressed, either, when David Willey failed to keep hold of a difficult chance offered by Duminy.
Yet it was far from easy going for SouthSo th Africa Africa, who ho fo found d flue fluencyc just as difficult as England in what turned out to be good practice for the sub- continental conditions at next month’s World Twenty20.
The pressure on South Africa was at its most intense when Chris Jordan dismissed David Miller and David Wiese in a 19th over that cost only six runs.
But Topley could have caught Morris, a big-money IPL recruit for Delhi, at third man off his first ball to give Jordan a third wicket in his over.
South Africa captain Faf du Plessis said of Morris: ‘We got out of jail big-time and the million dollar man has done it again.’
Morgan, meanwhile, tried to boost the confidence of his young bowler, saying: ‘Reece is obviously very disappointed but I think he will handle this very well.
‘He has a huge amount of skill and character and that’s why he plays for us.
‘We see a lot of potential in him and if we played the same game and he needed to bowl the last over I’d still have every faith in him.’
That may be so but South Africa have ended England’s run of six successive Twenty20 wins and shown how to come out on top in a tight game.