The third T 20 game : South Africa v England
My declaration in favour of T20 generated a fair amount of flak from the traditionalists.
One emailed me that there is no stroke play just a baseball-style swat, or a reverse paddle. Maybe.
However there was always a contest as England chased down 222 and won by five wickets.
England bat down to 10 as Adil Rashid and Chris Jordan are competent scorers. However their strength lies in the middle order of Eion Morgan, Ben Stokes and Jonny Bairstow.
Jos Buttler and Jason Roy had set up a platform. Mind you South Africa have their big hitters too. As usual, Quentin de Kock dispatched many a delivery over the boundary fence.
The game oscillated nicely.
With 5 overs to go it looked like the Proteans would shade it, but Dwaine Pretorius dropped an easy chance.
However, even in victory England will be concerned by 11 wides conceded. They will need to tighten up for the World Cup in October/November.
The series produced a received number of runs and sixes for Eion Morgan. Some are calling it the greatest T20 series ever. My conversion is not total . I prefer to watch on tv as there is too much noise fro me. How many times can you hear Sweet Caroline?
Perhaps in time those bright-eyed youngsters at Centurion yesterday will grow into cricket lovers of all forms of the game admiring, say, the way Geoff Boycott defended his wicket in Barbados in the face of the highly hostile bowling of Michael Holding on a dangerous pitch as much as Eion Morgan’s sixes soaring over their heads.
