Key events
21st over: England 147-2 ( Root 25, Bethell 18) Marharaj v Bethell. is a tantalising watch. Bethell flambes the first ball through the covers for four. I love the shapes he makes when he is batting, all flicked ankles, high knees.
20th over: England 139-2 ( Root 25, Bethell 14) Intelligent stuff from Burger, just two from it.
19th over: England 137-2 ( Root 23, Bethell 14) Bethell finishes Maharaj’s over by shimmying down the pitch and dispatching sweet and high and straight for six.
18th over: England 128-2 ( Root 21, Bethell 7) Burger is back. Bethell interests the South African fielders with an aerial pull, but it obediently flies through the gap.
17th over: England 119-2 ( Root 18, Bethell 1) Maharaj with the breakthrough again, and Smith trudges off, adding another 39 after being dropped, but without lighting the touchpaper. And England send in Bethell at four again.
WICKET! Smith c Bosch b Maharaj (England 117-2)
Bosch smiles and puts his hand to his heart after holding on at long on. Smith trudges off, eyes bigger than stomach, aiming for another big blow.
16th over: England 116-1 (Smith 62, Root 16) Smith launches into Mulder, like a man with a hangover attacking a fried egg sandwich, but a fabulous mid-air diving stop by Yusuf prevents the boundary. Mulder throws in a couple of short balls to finish which perplex Smith. And that is DRINKS, with England sitting pretty.
15th over: England 110-1 (Smith 57, Root 15) Bevuma calls up Maharaj to try and regain some control, but Smith leans into him too, sending him racing over midwicket for four.
Fifty for Jamie Smith
14th over: England 102-1 (Smith 51, Root 13) None of these South African bowlers have been able to stem the flow, the run-rate happily climbing to more than seven. The stands look full around the Rosebowl, and burst into applause as Smith sends four more whistling across the damp grass, stepping to one side with high elbow and making merry. And here comes the half-century, a shimmy off the pads: his third fifty in 16 matches, and from just 38 balls.
13th over: England 92-1 (Smith 43, Root 12) Smith flicks Bosch over his shoulder for six, follows up with four, punched in mid-air, with a well-oiled rotation of the wrists. He has now added 20 off 13 balls since he was dropped.
12th over: England 78-1 (Smith 31, Root 11) Smith immediately rubs salt into South African wounds, whisking a dirty ball from Mulder down to the fine leg boundary.
11th over: England 70-1 (Smith 24, Root 10) South Africa nearly pouch another, in fact Smith had bat under arm and was marching off after sprawling the ball into the air. The leading edge loops up but Breetzke at extra cover has a moment of madness, his body almost recoils as the ball comes towards him, he seems to lose balance and ball bounces off his palms and goes to ground.
10th over: England 67-1 (Smith 23, Root 8) Enter Wiaan Mulder/Ryan Gosling. His first ball is as ropey as an old onion and Root flicks it off his pads for four. England in a very healthy position with a fifth of the overs gone.
9th over: England 62-1 (Smith 23, Root 3) South Africa needed that, England’s momentum was starting to roll.
WICKET! Duckett c Markram b Bosch 31 (England 59-1)
A frisky top-edge stops the carnage, as Markram holds on at midwicket. Duckett trots off at double-speed, that’s him done till he hops on the next plane.
8th over: England 58-0 (Smith 22, Duckett 31) An imperious punch down the ground by Smith. Nearly a repeat shot but Yusuf stops it with some, now painful, part of his body. He then beats the eager Duckett outside edge, but it doesn’t take long for the next boundary as Duckett eases onto his toes and cuts with panache.
7th over: England 49-0 (Smith 17, Duckett 27) England’s boots press on the accelerator as the fair-haired Bosch replaces Burger. Duckett whips a wide offering through point for four and another steams off the bat through midwicket. Two dots to finish the over.
6th over: England 40-0 (Smith 17, Duckett 19) Four dots from Yusuf and a stylish four from Smith, curling off his boots. We see a pensive Bethell staring through the dressing-room door.
5th over: England 35-0 (Smith 13, Duckett 18) Four little boys wave Smiths’s drive off a widish ball from Burger through the covers for four – it shuffles rather than leaps over the rope. This is already by some distance England’s largest opening stand of the series – the previous efforts came to were 13 and nought.
4th over: England 28-0 (Smith 9, Duckett 17) Yusuf feels the pressure from last-day-of-school Duckett, who flays him for two fours, one through backward square, one through point.
3rd over: England 20-0 (Smith 9, Duckett 9) Ben Duckett has played every England international since last November – the only player apart from Harry Brook. No wonder the poor man looks tired – he’ll get his rest in the T20 series. He wriggles his shoulders into action and whips Burger away for four through square leg, then Smith joins in, driving on the up and the ball dances away over the sunlit rope. The final ball of the over, a short, fa pie, also disappears, a hiccup short of being six.
Ali Martin helps out with the definition of a heavy length: “It pushes players back, back of a length and hits the bat hard.”
2nd over: England 7-0 (Smith 1, Duckett 4) Codi Yusuf with his first over in ODI cricket – starts with a wide but ends with a perfect acorn that nips away and turns Jamie Smith around. A low-key start this for England.
1st over: England 3-0 (Smith 1, Duckett 1) Burger it is, in the green and gold, he bowls “a heavy length” says Stuart Broad – I’m not entirely sure what this means. Smith swings and misses at his second ball, which is given as a wide. He launches at the next, which flies up and just short of Stubbs at deep third man. Duckett is then lucky to survive as he defends a ball which almost wriggles into his stumps.
Good morning Rob (in the Dolomites)!
“Hope the rain eases up soon! In the meantime could you send/post the TMS overseas link for the ODI?”
The rain has eased off and the players are out – but I’ve had a brain fade and can’t remember how to find the TMS link – can any readers please help?
Ali Martin dials in. “ I saw Codi Yusuf bowl for Durham at New Road earlier this summer – a slippery fast-medium who counts Dale Steyn among his admirers.”
Just going to grab a quick coffee, back soon.
Play to start at 11.15am
Stuart Broad speaks to Jacob Bethell, fresh from a tricky summer but a fantastic half century in the last game: “I really enjoyed the opportunity to bat at number four [at Lord’s], not pre-planned, just that they had two left-armed spinners so my job to show some intent.”
Your first summer. “I’ve really enjoyed it, obviously that West Indies series was a white-wash. Even though I didn’t play much in the Test series was great to be around the group. Got a chance in the last Test but couldn’t make the most of it.
“There has been a little bit of noise about how much I’ve played. If I’m honest I should have played slightly more when I wasn’t playing in the Test, but looking ahead there is a lot of cricket so I might be grateful for that.”
An interesting chat between Nick Knight, Shaun Pollock and Mike Atherton. Athers says that England are trying to bring the ODI and Test teams together whilst treating the T20 side as a different entity. That’s sensible on paper, he says, but brings a “real challenge because of the amount and volume of Test cricket England play. They are going to have to be quite strong about where their players play franchise cricket.”
South Africa XI
South Africa: Aiden Markram, Ryan Rickelton (wk), Temba Bavuma (capt),Matthew Breetzke, Tristan Stubbs, Dewald Brevis, Wiann Mulder, Corbin Bosch, Keshav Maharaj, Codi Yusuf, Nandre Burger.
England XI
England: Jamie Smith, Ben Duckett, Joe Root, Harry Brook (capt), Jos Buttler (wk), Jacob Bethell, Will Jacks, Jamie Overton, Brydon Carse, Jofra Archer, Adil Rashid.
And umbrellas down… but there is a damp sheen on the grass and we will be starting a bit late.
And here comes the rain…
Umbrellas up….
Harry Brook, who looks so slimline and athletic these days, says England will “be aggressive with the bat, and aggressive with the ball.” So no change there. He’d have bowled too.
Team news: For England, Jamie Overton replaces Saqib Mahmood; while South Africa swap out Senuran Muthusamy and Lungi Ngidi and bring in Wiaan Mulder and Durham’s Codi Yusuf for his ODI debut.
South Africa win the toss and will bowl!
“Looks like there is something in the wicket,” he says, “and we will look to take advantage of it.”
But Ali tries to find some light in the fixtures congestion.
Our man in Southampton, Simon Burnton, has landed at the Rosebowl and reports that it is lovely and bright, though “thick clouds lie over yonder hill.”
The two sides’ 50-over prospects seem to be travelling in different directions: South Africa’s first ODI series win in England since 1998 is their second series win in a row as they build towards a home World Cup in 2027. England have now lost five ODI series in the last six. And the schedule continues to pile up.
Preamble
Good morning from an autumnal Manchester where the rain clouds are jostling into position. The Met office is painting a much happier picture down south for this third and final ODI – with symbols of frolicking sunshine and temperatures touching the twenties.
South Africa have already clinched the series after that splattering at Headingley followed by a close-run-thing at Lord’s, and Harry Brook’s England will want to finish with a morale-booster ahead of the T20 series. South Africa, though, have other plans, after their second successive ODI series win.
Play starts at 11am BST, do join us.
