We often hear about one day cricket being in danger from T20s and tests but the fact is, it's more in danger when played in non-batting conditions like we usually find in England. None of the games in this Natwest series had seen high scoring games, boring fans quite a big and once again today, we had a low scorig no thriller game that South Africans secured and hence equalized the series 2-2.
Barring Alastair Cook and couple of fighting thirties from Craig Kieswetter and Chris Woakes, English batting failed against pace of Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel while Robin Peterson spun his web for 3 wickets as well. South Africans were off to terrible start themselves but Hashim Amla stood like a rock to steer his team home. here's how the story unfolded..
Electing to bat first with sun shine overhead, Alastair Cook found going easy as 23 runs came from first four overs before Ian Bell was claimed by Peterson who was surprize pick to bowl with new ball. Ravi Bopara failed with the bat once again but Jonny Bairstow managed the best stand for home team of the innings with Cook, adding 55 runs before two more wickets fell inside 3 runs. Cook himself lost the patience at 26th over mark and then onwards, it was a matter of English to bat out their overs. They couldn't, falling 28 balls short.
Target of 183 seemed long way away when James Anderson ate up Fracois du Plessis and Dean Elgar in back to back overs but Hashim Amla, now joined by captain AB de Villiers, made no mistakes. The pair shared 176 unbroken stand for 4th wicket and leveled the series.
| England innings (elected to bat) |
| Batsman |
|
R |
B |
4s |
6s |
| Alastair Cook |
c & b du Plessis |
51 |
72 |
6 |
0 |
| Ian Bell |
lbw b Peterson |
10 |
11 |
2 |
0 |
| Ravi Bopara |
c de Villiers b Steyn |
0 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
| Jonny Bairstow |
c Ontong b Morkel |
29 |
52 |
4 |
0 |
| Eoin Morgan |
c Amla b Duminy |
0 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
| Craig Kieswetter |
c Amla b Morkel |
33 |
53 |
3 |
0 |
| Samit Patel |
c de Villiers b Steyn |
9 |
13 |
1 |
0 |
| Chris Woakes |
not out |
33 |
44 |
3 |
0 |
| James Tredwell |
b Peterson |
6 |
19 |
0 |
0 |
| James Anderson |
c Morkel b Peterson |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
| Jade Dernbach |
c de Villiers b Parnell |
2 |
6 |
0 |
0 |
|
| Extra : |
9 (lbyes=3, wides=3, noballs=3) |
| Total : |
182 runs in
45.2 overs for
10 wicket. RR = (
4.03 ).
|
| Fall of wickets : 1-23 (Bell, 3.6 ov), 2-24 (Bopara, 4.3 ov), 3-79 (Bairstow, 18.6 ov), 4-82 (Morgan, 19.5 ov), 5-99 (Cook, 25.2 ov), 6-124 (Patel, 30.3 ov), 7-156 (Kieswetter, 37.3 ov), 8-175 (Tredwell, 43.2 ov), 9-175 (Anderson, 43.3 ov), 10-182 (Dernbach, 45.2 ov) |
| Bowler |
Overs |
Maiden |
Runs |
W |
Extra |
| Dale Steyn |
9 |
2 |
24 |
2 |
1 wide |
| Robin Peterson |
10 |
0 |
37 |
3 |
|
| Morne Morkel |
8 |
0 |
41 |
2 |
2 wides |
| Wayne Parnell |
8.2 |
0 |
38 |
1 |
2 no balls |
| Dean Elgar |
4 |
0 |
20 |
0 |
1 no ball |
| JP Duminy |
4 |
0 |
11 |
1 |
|
| Francois du Plessis |
2 |
0 |
8 |
1 |
|
| South Africa innings (target = 183 from 50 overs) |
| Batsman |
|
R |
B |
4s |
6s |
| Hashim Amla |
not out |
97 |
107 |
9 |
1 |
| Graeme Smith |
c Tredwell b Dernbach |
1 |
6 |
0 |
0 |
| Francois du Plessis |
c Kieswetter b Anderson |
3 |
5 |
0 |
0 |
| Dean Elgar |
c Kieswetter b Anderson |
1 |
10 |
0 |
0 |
| AB de Villiers |
not out |
75 |
79 |
10 |
0 |
| JP Duminy |
|
|
|
|
|
| Justin Ontong |
|
|
|
|
|
| Wayne Parnell |
|
|
|
|
|
| Robin Peterson |
|
|
|
|
|
| Dale Steyn |
|
|
|
|
|
| Morne Morkel |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Extra : |
9 (lbye=1, wides=8) |
| Total : |
186 runs in
34.3 overs for
3 wickets. RR = (
5.42 ).
|
| Fall of wickets : 1-8 (Smith, 1.4 ov), 2-11 (du Plessis, 2.3 ov), 3-14 (Elgar, 4.4 ov) |
| Bowler |
Overs |
Maiden |
Runs |
W |
Extra |
| James Anderson |
9 |
2 |
41 |
2 |
1 wide |
| Jade Dernbach |
7.3 |
0 |
56 |
1 |
4 wides |
| Chris Woakes |
6 |
0 |
35 |
0 |
1 wide |
| James Tredwell |
6 |
0 |
30 |
0 |
|
| Samit Patel |
2 |
0 |
11 |
0 |
|
| Ravi Bopara |
4 |
0 |
12 |
0 |
|
