Ken Borland

South Africa produced a compelling all-round display as they paced their batting perfectly and then fried England’s batsmen in the hot oil of unrelenting pressure from the bowlers and fielders, beating the hosts by a massive 90 runs to win their T20 series in Southampton on Sunday evening.

The Proteas had been sent in to bat and conditions were tough early on for the batsmen as Quinton de Kock was bowled for a duck by David Willey (4-1-25-3) in the first over and there was early movement with the new ball.

But Reeza Hendricks dug in and Rilee Rossouw then blazed 31 off 18 balls to provide some impetus in the powerplay, which South Africa finished on 53/1.

Hendricks, in red-hot form, accelerated to his third successive half-century and went on to score a fine 70 off 50 balls as he and Aiden Markram (51* off 36) built towards the death overs with a fantastically-judged partnership of 87 for the third wicket in 10 overs.

An impressive Markram, David Miller (22 off 9) and Tristan Stubbs, who hit his first two balls for four, then provided the big finish with 50 runs in the last four overs taking the Proteas to an above-par 191/5.

South Africa were outstanding in the field, their bowlers giving nothing away and being backed by superb fielding, led by a magnificent catch by Stubbs to remove Moeen Ali for just 3.

England missed their usual rollicking start as Jos Buttler (14) was outfoxed by the Proteas’ plans and excellent bowling by left-arm spinner Keshav Maharaj, and Jason Roy struggled to 17 off 18 balls before Anrich Nortje had him caught behind.

Tabraiz Shamsi then continued his spectacular comeback from the mauling he took in the first game, ripping through England with career-best figures of 5/24.

Fellow spinners Keshav Maharaj (2/21) and Markram, who dismissed Moeen courtesy of an extraordinary catch by Stubbs, running from a widish midwicket towards mid-on and diving full-length to take a one-handed catch as the ball went past him, also contributed. Their success showed that England erred in only giving off-spinner Moeen one over, getting too carried away with match-ups when conditions and a big field favoured the spinners.

The novelty value and excitement of being part of a greater Team South Africa at the Commonwealth Games will hopefully see the Proteas women’s cricket team return to their strengths and bounce back from a torrid run of six straight defeats against England when they play New Zealand in their opening game at Edgbaston on Saturday.

Team unity will seldom be more important for the Proteas as they are without most of their leading individual stars – Lizelle Lee has controversially retired, Marizanne Kapp is back in South Africa attending to a family emergency, Dane van Niekerk is still injured and Trisha Chetty and Tumi Sekhukhune are also unfit to play.

They have also been in England for a long time, suffering regular blows to their morale, and key players like Shabnim Ismail, Sune Luus and Mignon du Preez have been struggling for form.

Coach Hilton Moreeng has tried to bolster the mood.

“It’s very exciting to have this opportunity to be part of the Games, it’s a first for us and you can see the joy in the players, they know they have the opportunity to do something special.

“It’s a very happy camp and we feel blessed to represent Team South Africa. The main thing is we have acclimatised and we can adapt to conditions in Birmingham very well.

“Plus we’ve been playing against a very competitive team like England, who are always in the top two and they have tested us well. We’ve gone back to the drawing board to see how we can improve.

“We’ve learnt a lot playing against England and now we will use that to see how we can get victories in the Commonwealth Games. We will need to fire in all our disciplines,” Moreeng said.

While New Zealand have been inactive since the World Cup in March, it should be remembered that they beat the Proteas 3-1 in their previous meeting back in February 2020, clinching the series by romping to a 69-run victory in Wellington.

England and Sri Lanka are the other teams in Group B, so it is likely whoever wins Saturday’s clash between the Kiwis and the Proteas will make the semi-finals along with the hosts.

But New Zealand have been underachievers in global women’s events and South Africa will hope their greater match-sharpness will allow them to put their opponents under pressure.

Play starts at 12pm.

Fresh off his career-best T20 score for South Africa, Rilee Rossouw said he wants to net trophies for the Proteas and he will have an opportunity as early as Sunday to do that in the deciding game of the three-match series against England in Southampton.

Winning their first white-ball series in England since 1998 is the short-term goal of the South Africans, but this trio of matches had a more significant personal importance for Rossouw, who last played for the Proteas in 2016. It was very much a World Cup trial for the left-handed batsman and he has surely booked his ticket to Australia in two months time with his blazing 96 not out off 55 balls in the series-levelling 58-run victory in Cardiff on Thursday night.

“Representing your country is the proudest thing you can do and I just want to help the Proteas win trophies,” Rossouw said afterwards.

“The Proteas have had some great results over the last year-and-a-half, the team is building momentum to the World Cup and there have been good team and individual performances. The sky’s the limit.

“Unfortunately things did not go my way in the first game, I was probably a bit over-confident with the amount of runs I have scored in England this season. So I really wanted to do well today.

“I wanted three figures really badly, but credit to Chris Jordan for an exceptional last over with him bowling those yorkers so well. But for me to put up a performance like that was really special, it’s been a very emotional day,” Rossouw said.

After Sunday’s decider on a good batting wicket at the Rose Bowl in Southampton, South Africa have two games against Ireland and a series versus India left before the T20 World Cup. Coach Mark Boucher will be satisfied that he has spread the net wide and searched every nook and cranny for explosive, aggressive players, and it will be interesting to see if regulars like Aiden Markram, Rassie van der Dussen, Anrich Nortje and Dwaine Pretorius are still rested for the last match against England.

With opening batsman Reeza Hendricks scoring fluent back-to-back half-centuries and Rossouw coming good at No.3, the Proteas top-order has done well.

The hosts will be hoping their experienced opener Jason Roy will finally fire. The 32-year-old has scored just 67 runs off 85 balls in his last six innings and he really batted like a granny in his previous match in Southampton, scoring just four off 16 balls against India three weeks ago.

Sunday’s game is a day fixture starting at 3.30pm SA time.

Rilee Rossouw batted with power and precision and Tabraiz Shamsi bounced back superbly from his mauling in the first match as South Africa levelled the T20 series with an impressive 58-run win over England at Sophia Gardens in Cardiff on Thursday night.

Given how comprehensively they were outplayed in the first T20, the Proteas surprisingly fielded an unchanged XI and Rossouw, who scored just 4 in his comeback match, made the most of his second chance with a fiery 96 not out off 55 balls leading the tourists to a sizeable 207/3 after they had been sent in to bat.

Wrist-spinner Shamsi, who went for 49 runs in three overs in the Bristol battering, was the key bowler for South Africa, taking 3/27 in his four overs. That included the key wicket of Moeen Ali, who blasted England’s fastest ever T20 half-century in the first match and looked in similar touch in Cardiff as he blitzed 28 off 17 balls before Keshav Maharaj took a brilliant catch, running and diving at long-off.

It typified a vastly improved fielding effort by the Proteas as well, and when Sam Curran (2) fell to the same combination in the same over, England had slipped to 92/5 after 11 overs.

Earlier, Reeza Hendricks continued to fulfil the desire of the Proteas management for more aggression up front, stroking a fluent, impressive 53 off 32 balls up front.

He dovetailed brilliantly with Rossouw, the pair adding 73 in 7.4 overs for the second wicket.

The left-handed Rossouw showed his power game as he launched five sixes, but he also produced some superb touches that created some of his 10 fours.

Captain Jos Buttler gave England the rapid start they wanted with 29 off 14 balls, but Andile Phehlukwayo, another who rebounded extremely well with three wickets, had him caught off a leading edge.

Spinners Shamsi and Maharaj, with the important wicket of Dawid Malan (5) then did their job, and it was left to the outstanding Lungi Ngidi (2.4-0-11-2) to wrap up the game, England being bowled out for 149 inside 17 overs.