South Africa lead 1-0 against England in the three-game ODI series after an impressive win in the inaugural ODI in Bloemfontein on Friday (27 January). South Africa, defending 298, were outnumbered very early on after an opening tie of 146 runs between the English openers in his 20 overs in the first. But while Jason Roy recovered form with his 100 great, the hosts made a great comeback to seal his 27-round win.
Dawid Maran started the innings alongside Roy and helped England get off to a quick start with a three boundary ahead of Kagiso Labada. Roy framed successive boundaries in the next over as England made 29 in the first three overs and made a statement. The hosts seemed to pull the situation back a bit after that, but Aiden Markrum was slammed straight to the ground with a 6 by Roy, which sparked another brief, boundary-filled spell.
Another six, this time from Anrich Norce, helped England to over 100 while Roy remained in good spirits. By the time the drinks were called, Roy had already raced on 77 of just 56. It was Sisanda Magala who broke the partnership and South Africa had Malang’s short to time his ball. I was relieved to miss Ben Duckett went down in the next over and Magala caught debutant Harry Brooke in a duck before the wicket. The game was quickly reversed for three wickets in three overs, but England took over again when Roy scored three figures. At 196/3, the visitors were the firm favourites, hitting another 103 runs on his seven wickets in the tank. However, a Labada short ball landed on the Centurion, giving South Africa a lifeline.
The hosts then took control of the game, with Magala coming up with another short ball, sacking Moen Ali and Norce finding the outside edge from Jos Butler. These two wickets of his put England under the pump. Their long tail gave them hope, but South African sailors continued to make breakthroughs to seal the deal in a very surprising way, especially since the requisite travel speed was within reach.
A strong batting performance from the hosts earlier in the day enabled the hosts to post his 298/7 on the boards. Had they done better, they could have been closer to 320, but England were able to calm the South African posthumously, but Temba’s Babma was powering his play. That was not the case early in the innings. Joined by Quinton de Kok, the returning Jofra Archer struggled along the way. Bavuma and de Kock continued to work on the border to give South Africa a strong start before the introduction of Moeen Ali ended Bavuma’s stay.
Rassie van der Dussen took charge and kept the scorecard moving despite losing players like de Kock and Aiden Markram. Van der Düssen built a valid stand alongside Heinrich Klaessen and revived the innings when wicketkeeper batsman Adil Rashid showed his intentions by missing his six. But it was Reggie who had the last laugh, bowling a fuller delivery. Van der Duessen’s responsibility was to push South Africa to a strong overall performance. He cleared back-to-back limits from Archer as the host, well positioned at 224/4 after 40 overs, and set up for a final attack.
Brief scores: South Africa 298/7 in 50 overs (Rassie van der Dussen 111. David Miller 53; Sam Curran 3/35) lost to England 271 in 44.2 overs (Jason Roy 113, Dawid Malan 59; Anrich Nortje 4/62, Sisanda Magala 3/46) by 27 runs