Key events
4th over: South Africa 53-2 (Markram 30, Brevis 0)
“So the falling over shot is now definitely absolutely a distinct shot, I think?” wonders Luke Dealtry. “Falling over is parts of the mechanics, the thing that allows them to get in position. There’s no other way to play the particular ball to that particular place without hitting the turf. Pant the progenitor or who have I missed?”
I think so, yes, though I’m not the man I used to be as clued-up on such things as I once was. It’s definitely a distinct shot.
WICKET! South Africa 53-2 (Pretorious c Wood b Archer 2)
Two wickets in the over for Jofra. Lhuan-dre Pretorious tried to violate a wide slower ball over the leg side but could only slice it towards short third, where Luke Wood dived forward to take the catch.
WICKET! South Africa 50-1 (Rickelton c Dawson b Archer 20)
Glory be, a wicket. Rickelton beasted Archer down the ground for 4, 6 and 6 before flashing a pull towards midwicket, where Liam Dawson took an excellent leaping catch.
This game isn’t over, you know.
3rd over: South Africa 34-0 (Markram 30, Rickelton 4) Markram doesn’t think this game is over. He pillages 22 from Wood’s second over, including a devastating pull for six that goes miles over square leg and onto a hotel balcony.
Earlier in the over he mistimed a shot that teased Archer, running back from mid-on, before dropping through his hands. A tough chance, but one England will regret if Markram scores 214 not out.
2nd over: South Africa 12-0 (Markram 8, Rickelton 4) Jofra Archer, bowling for the first time since that brutish spell in Southampton on Sunday, starts with an even better over. It includes five dot balls to the left-handed Rickelton, whose only scoring shot is a thump down the ground for four.
1st over: South Africa 8-0 (Markram 8, Rickelton 0) A fine start from Luke Wood, who is becoming an increasingly persuasive option in this form of the game. Aiden Markram flicks a flat six over backward square but otherwise struggles to time – or in some cases even hit – Wood’s full-length inswingers.
The players are back on the field. Before they resume, a great spot from Tim de Lisle, who points out that the other England batters outscored Phil Salt 150-141.
Is Salt’s caution holding England back?
“It’ll be interesting to see how slowly Adil Rashid bowls with 300 on the board” smiles Jos Buttler during a quick post-innings interview on Sky.
He was interviewed with his old mate Eoin Morgan, whose opening line was amusing: “Jos Buttler, 83 from 30 balls. You left a few out there…”
“Just catching up, Rob,” says Simon McMahon. “A fine innings by Salt, but a run a ball for South Africa in the chase shouldn’t be that difficult on this pitch. Oh, a T20, you say. Right…”
England pummel 304 in 20 overs
20th over: England 304-2 (Salt 141, Brook 41) Rabada bowls another front-foot no-ball, his third of the innings, though he makes up for that with a clever slowe ball that defeats Salt’s attempted violence.
No matter: Salt picks up an attempted yorker for six, an outrageous shot, and a couple of singles take England to the mind-boggling milestone of 300.
Theer’s time for another no-ball and a bit of scampering to take the score to – are you sitting down – 304 for two in 20 overs. It’s the third highest total in a men’s T20 international; the top two were against the Gambia and Mongolia.
Salt receives a standing ovation, and a barrage of backslaps from his teammates, after playing an innings for the ages: 141 from 60 balls with 15 fours and eight sixes. I have no words, only stats.
19th over: England 284-2 (Salt 133, Brook 31) Salt smokes Jansen’s first ball down the ground for six, then violates the next ball towards cow corner. Maphaka steps on the boundary sponge while taking what otherwise have been an excellent solo relay catch. Six more!
Strange to remember, all of an hour ago, that Salt was overshadowed by Jos Buttler at the start of the innings.
England need 16 from the final over to become the first Test-playing nation to beast 300 in a T20 international.
Salt breaks his own England record for highest T20 score
18th over: England 268-2 (Salt 120, Brook 28) Salt carves Maphaka just over cover for two, then mistimes a pull for a single to move to 120 – and break his own record for England’s highest T20 score.
Maphaka ends an impressive spell, full of variations, with relatively healthy figures of 4-0-41-0.
“Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of this astonishing Phil Salt innings,” says Brian Withington, “has been the way that he has progressively played himself out of form during it!”
17th over: England 260-2 (Salt 114, Brook 27) Harry Brook riffs on Lisaad Williams’ pain with back-to-back sixes, a pump down the ground and a fallover scoop from well wide of off stump.
Williams’ figures would look bad in Stick Cricket, never mind real life: 3-0-62-0.
16th over: England 244-2 (Salt 113, Brook 11) The fourgy continues during Marco Jansen’s third over. Salt works a poor ball to fine leg, Brook lashes his first boundary over cover and celebrates with a fallover scoop for another next ball.
England need a run a ball to reach their highest T20 score; they’ll be eyeing a whole lot more.
15th over: England 230-2 (Salt 108, Brook 3) Salt back cuts Fortuin skilfully for four. Brook tries his rollover sweep, misses and survives a review for caught behind. That would have been a helluva dismissal to add to his peculiar portfolio of the last few weeks.
Fortuin finishes with figures of 4-0-52-2.
WICKET! England 221-2 (Bethell c Jansen b Fortuin 26)
Bethell clubs Fortuin to long on to end a breezy cameo of 26 from 14 balls.
14th over: England 221-1 (Salt 104, Bethell 26) Salt is beaten by a bumper from Maphaka, then starts giving one of the South African players, possibly Jansen, a mouthful. Not sure what that was about.
Maphaka, the teenager, concedes only five from a canny third over. He has – what a weird thing to write – outstanding figures of 3-0-33-0.
Buffet bowling by South Africa?” asks Matthew Doherty.
I don’t think they’ve bowled too badly, certainly early on.
Salt smashes fastest-ever England hundred from 39 balls
13th over: England 216-1 (Salt 102, Bethell 24) Oh good lord. Rabada starts his over with a no-ball, which means a free hit for Phil Salt. He makes it count, sweet-spotting an empathic six over long on to bring up the 200 after 12.1 overs.
Salt is on course to obliterate the record for the fastest England hundred in any format – 42 balls by Liam Livingstone against Pakistan in 2021. In the time it takes me to write that sentence, he edges for four and clouts another free hit for two to bring up an amazing 39-ball century: 13 fours, five sixes, hundreds of Old Trafford spectators agape.
Rabada’s over is a bit of a shambles, a 10-ball affair that also includes two wides. Bethell back cuts the last delivery for four to make it 23 from the over. I feel punchdrunk so goodness knows how South Africa’s bowlers are doing.
12th over: England 193-1 (Salt 87, Bethell 20) Aiden Markram brings himself into the attack, presumably to bowl at least one of the overs originally earmarked for Lisaad Williams (2-0-46-0).
Markram starts well by conceding a single off each of the first three balls. Then Bethell sweeps behind square for four and drives two majestic straight sixes. Not bad from the most overrated batter in cricket history, as Bethell was described by some moron last week.
11th over: England 174-1 (Salt 85, Bethell 3) The first over after drinks is the first single-figure over of the game, with Fortuin conceding a mere eight runs. No boundaries either.
Drinks break
“The frenetic scoring is becoming so absurd it resembles the beach cricket of yesteryear at our very wonderful Victorian seaside resorts,” writes Kim Thonger. “I wonder if there’s actually a market for a mid-winter T20 when the sand is good and hard at say, Weston-super-Mare? On a cold dry sunny day when the tide is well out and with a stiff breeze to aid the inswinger it could be jolly entertaining. And the candy floss and whelk stalls are second to none. Punch & Judy entertainment on hand for the kiddiwinks of course.”
When I loved in Somerset I could barely manage a dog walk in December, never mind a game of T20.
England set 10-over men’s T20 record
10th over: England 166-1 (Salt 78, Bethell 2) Salt works Maphaka off the pads for successive fours, creams the next ball violently whence it came for another, helps the last ball of the over off the hip for a fourth. He is 78 not out from 28 balls, and this is normal behaviour apparently.
Oh, England’s 10-over score is the highest in any men’s T20 international. And that’s in any century, not just the 21st.
Salt smashes 19-ball fifty
9th over: England 150-1 (Salt 62, Bethell 2) This is now officially bonkers. Salt – who was overshadowed by Buttler despite scoring at a strike rate of TWO HUNDRED AND FORTY – assumes the lead role and mangles poor old Lisaad Williams for 20 from four legal deliveries. Six over midwicket, four through mid-off, six over extra-cover, four to wide long-on.
Somewhere in all that Salt brought up a relatively ponders fifty from 19 balls.
8th over: England 126-1 (Salt 41, Bethell 1)
WICKET! England 126-1 (Buttler c Stubbs b Fortuin 83)
Buttler pumps two more sixes off Fortuin – long on and midwicket I think, though they’er starting to blur into one – before pinging a hockey stroke to deep backward square, where Tristan Stubbs takes a sharp catch as he falls backwards.
Buttler walks off to a standing ovation, which can’t have happened too often for a player who faced 30 deliveries and batted for only 35 minutes. In that time Buttler struck eight fours and seven sixes, most with an eerie serenity.
7th over: England 112-0 (Salt 40, Buttler 70) Jansen returns, with the added security of having five fielders outsi- ah, forget it. Salt pulls him flat and hard for six; Buttler makes room to play a cross-court forehand between extra cover and mid-off for four. He has 70 from 26 balls.
Hang on, 70 from 26 balls!!!
England score 100 in record Powerplay
6th over: England 100-0 (Salt 33, Buttler 65) The teenage left-arm seamer Kwena Maphaka is invited to do something, anything. He starts well, conceding two from his first three balls. And then he too is Buttlered: a slap through the covers is followed by a devastating swipe down the ground for six.
That brings up the England hundred inside six overs. This is comfortably their highest Powerplay score, beating the 89 for 3 they scored against South Africa in a classic World T20 game at Mumbai nine years ago. On that occasion England chased down 230 to win; South Africa are facing a similar target.
Buttler wallops 18-ball fifty
5th over: England 88-0 (Salt 32, Buttler 54) Rabada returns to the attack and is monstered down the ground for six by Buttler. Three successive fours take Buttler to a quite exhilarating 50 from 18 balls. He waves his bat to the ground, then snaps his head back to salute his late father.
The second of those three fours tempted mid-on, who dived in an attempt to take a low catch but was beaten by the dip on the ball.
I’m not even sure South Africa have bowled badly you know; it’s been a startling assault from the England openers.
Fifty partnership in 3.2 overs
4th over: England 68-0 (Salt 31, Buttler 35) The left-arm spinner Bjorn Fortuin assumes the position. Salt pulls him for four to bring up the fifty partnership in just 3.2 overs; Buttler drives successive deliveries over mid-off for six and four. Remember when a six was an event?
Fortuin tries slowing his pace down with the last ball of the over. Buttler waits and waits and clubs it to exactly the same area for four more. He has 35 from 14 balls, Salt 31 from 10. It’s no exaggeration to say that England could get 500 here.
Williams’ first over disappears for 23
3rd over: England 48-0 (Salt 26, Buttler 20) The new bowler Lizaad Williams starts with two good deliveries – after which his figures are 0.2-0-12-0. Buttler pulled the first ferociously for six even though it wasn’t particularly short, and made room to blast the second over long on.
Two wides and a single are followed by successive boundaries for Salt, a pull and an edge wide of the keeper. Some start, this.
2nd over: England 25-0 (Salt 18, Buttler 7) Kagiso Rabada starts at the other end. Jos Buttler steers his first ball between slip and gully for four, a deft stroke, but Rabada keeps him quiet for the remainder of the over.
1st over: England 18-0 (Salt 18, Buttler 0) Phil Salt was out for a golden duck in Cardiff. At Old Trafford he hits the three balls of the match for four, as if this is somehow normal behaviour, then clubs the last delivery back over Marco Jansen’s head for six. A pr-etty good start for England.
Time for business. Marco Jansen will open the bowling to Phil Salt.
“It’s a sunny evening after deluges yesterday,” writes Tanya Aldred, who is at Old Trafford. “Party stand looks a bit sad – only about 15 per cent full at the moment.”
Team news
One change apiece. Jofra Archer comes in for Jamie Overton in the England XI; South Africa bring in the left-arm spinner Bjorn Fortuin from Corbin Bosch. Keshan Maharaj has a groin strain.
England Salt, Buttler (wk), Brook (c), Bethell, Banton, Curran, Jacks, Dawson, Archer, Rashid, Wood.
South Africa Markram (c), Rickelton, Pretorious, Brevis, Stubbs, Ferreira, Jansen, Rabada, Forruin, Maphaka, Williams.
South African win the toss and bowl
“The wicket looks a bit different, we hope there’s a bit of moisture early on,” says their captain Aiden Markram.
Harry Brook says England would have batted on what is a used pitch.
Preamble
It’s Friday, it’s 6pm, it’s time for TFI Not Raining in Manchester. After the soggiest of T20 matches in Cardiff on Wednesday, England and South Africa will hope for an actual 20-overs-a-side match tonight. There’s a chance of showers later – come on, it’s September in Manchester – but the signs are much better than they were 48 hours ago.
England need a win to avoid a second white-ball series defeat to South Africa. That’s a slightly weird sentence to write given the series is only 12.5 overs old. But South Africa handled the weirdness and the conditions far better on Wednesday, so if they win again in a more orthodox game tonight, England can have no complaints.
The match starts at 6.30pm.
