England set South Africa a goal of 202 at Emirates Old Trafford as they tried to maintain their Royal London Series alive in a rain-shortened second one-day worldwide towards South Africa.
Having misplaced each white-ball sequence towards India and the primary ODI towards the Proteas, it was make or break for Jos Buttler’s facet, who have been despatched in to bat in a recreation decreased to 29 overs per innings.
For the fifth recreation in a row England misplaced all 10 wickets, however a few dashing lower-order knocks from Liam Livingstone (38) and Sam Curran (35) lifted them to a aggressive complete.
After ending a decreased six-over powerplay with a comparatively wholesome rating of 49 for one, England misplaced a clatter of wickets as they stumbled to 72 for 5.
Dwaine Pretorius, solely taking part in on account of fellow all-rounder Andile Phehlukwayo’s concussion, was the first antagonist with three large wickets within the house of simply seven deliveries.
He dismissed Phil Salt after a quick cameo price 17 after which eliminated the bankable Joe Root for only one, each batters overly bold of their makes an attempt to get after good back-of-length balls. Even higher was a well-disguised slower ball that snuck previous the tried drive of Jonny Bairstow (28).
With opener Jason Roy first man down within the third over and Moeen Ali softly dragging Keshav Maharaj to long-leg, England had burned by half of their wickets with lower than 12 overs gone.
With Maharaj and Tabraiz Shamsi controlling the speed, a subdued Buttler lastly tried to get after the latter however despatched a spiralling catch to quick third to depart for 19.
His failure didn’t deter Curran or Livingstone and the pair had higher luck in their very own makes an attempt to up the ante.
Curran lofted each spinners for candy sixes down the bottom earlier than Livingstone took on the 90mph tempo of Anrich Nortje and cleared the ropes 3 times in a row.
Each time he heaved the ball excessive within the lengthy arc between high quality leg and deep midwicket, momentarily elevating the prospect of six sixes in an over. That hope ended when the fourth ball flew for 4 off a thick edge and the fifth introduced a near Livingstone’s fireworks as he dragged a brief ball to the ready David Miller.
Curran appeared like he may make one thing extra substantial, however needed to accept an 18-ball 35 when he holed out the skiddy Shamsi. England’s tail nudged them up over 200 however they nonetheless left 5 balls unused as Adil Rashid was run out on the demise.
Source: www.unbiased.co.uk