“We had one or two meetings this morning to clear up last night, but you can’t harp on things too much.” – David Miller
Telford Vice / Catania, Sicily
SAME time, same XIs. The place had changed — from Bristol to Cardiff, a marginal difference of 41 kilometres — for the second T20I between England and South Africa on Thursday, which followed the first game on Wednesday. But not a lot else. Or so it seemed initially.
In Bristol, Rilee Rossouw’s first innings for South Africa since October 2016 was snuffed out after four deliveries and as many runs. In Cardiff he showed the touch that made him a destructive white-ball Kolpak player, hitting an unbeaten 96 off 55.
Tristan Stubbs’ 28-ball 72 on Wednesday, batting at No. 6 after taking guard in the 10th over, earned him a promotion by one place. Even so, Stubbs arrived 27 balls later and couldn’t latch onto the bowling in the same way in his 15 not out, which came off a dozen deliveries.
Not a lot changed for Reeza Hendricks, who scored 57 off 33 in the first match and made 53 off 32 this time. Nor for Chris Jordan, who kept the damage down to three runs in a masterful 18th over on Wednesday. On Thursday, he went for four in the 20th.
Jos Buttler won the toss for the first time in eight white-ball games, and South Africa made 207/3 — the only time 200 has been breached in all nine T20Is at Sophia Gardens. England’s reply of 149 in 16.4 overs confirmed the most important difference of all between the two matches. It means the series goes to Southampton on Sunday level at 1-1.
Tabraiz Shamsi, who was hammered for 49 off three wicketless overs on Wednesday, dismissed Jason Roy, Moeen Ali and Sam Curran in four overs that went for 27. Andile Phehlukwayo took 1/63 from four overs in Bristol. In Cardiff he claimed 3/39 from three. Ngidi owned the most expensive five-wicket haul in T20I history in the first match, a leaky 5/39 for an economy rate of 9.75. In the second, he claimed 2/11 in 16 deliveries: a rate of 4.12, or less than half as many as in Bristol.
Another notable contrast was that South Africa held all their catches, having shelled five on Wednesday. Keshav Maharaj’s running, diving effort on the straight boundary to remove Moeen was a thing of wonder. Lungi Ngidi, a jumbo railway sleeper of a human being, found a way to follow the ball dipping from over his shoulder as he sprinted into the deep from backward point — and hold on as everything crashed to earth — to end Jonny Bairstow’s innings cheaply, for him, at 30.
Instead it was England who faltered in the field, with Buttler claiming a grab on the bounce off Jordan when Rossouw was 37 and Richard Gleeson spilling a chance he should have pouched at fine leg off Curran when Hendricks was 51.
For the South Africans to find the wherewithal to turn things around as emphatically as they did just 24 hours after they had been more thrashed than beaten only an hour’s drive away was remarkable. How did they manage it? “We had one or two meetings this morning to clear up last night, but you can’t harp on things too much,” David Miller said during his television interview.
As should be clear from that, Miller is a quintessential doer, not a talker. But he scored only eight in Bristol and, because Stubbs was sent in ahead of him on Thursday, didn’t bat in Cardiff. Whatever else England have to think about before Sunday’s decider, they shouldn’t forget that Miller will be itching to make his mark on the series. You can change the venue and the time — Sunday’s match is a day game, as opposed to the day/nighters in Bristol and Cardiff — but good luck trying to change Miller. His stage awaits.
First published by Cricbuzz.
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