A breathtaking onslaught from Quinton de Kock and Hashim Amla launched South Africa to 229-4 in Mumbai.
Poor old England. After being blown away on Wednesday by Chris Gayle, they lost the plot completely here as De Kock (52 off 24) and Amla (58 off 31) smashed them to all corner on their way to a 96-run opening partnership.
Together they hit 83 runs in the first six overs as their 50-partnership came off only 24 balls. England didn’t help themselves with some poor bowling and even worse fielding at times.
They struggled with their lines so much that captain Eoin Morgan was forced to use five different bowlers in the powerplay.
They didn’t do themselves any favours as Reece Topley dropped a routine catch from Amla with his score on nine.
De Kock was the initial tormenter, equaling AB de Villiers’ record for the fastest T20 fifty by a South African off just 21 balls.
Then Amla joined in and in one over smashed Chris Jordan for 22 with 4 4 4 6 4 to take the boundary tally after five overs to 15.
The hundred came up after eight overs shortly after De Kock was caught on the boundary by Alex Hales. It brought AB de Villiers to the crease at No 3, but after two consecutive sixes he departed after trying another big shot through the leg side, but instead got an leading edge and was caught by Morgan on the off-side.
Amla’s fifty came off 25 balls with a six, but Faf du Plessis batted too slowly and it halted South Africa’s momentum in the middle overs.
His dismissal for 17 off 17 was a blessing in disguise, but not before he became the joint second-fastest player to reach 1 000 T20I runs in just 32 innings.
JP Duminy continued the onslaught in the death overs by smashing 54 off 28 and together with David Miller (28 off 12) they made sure South Africa passed the 200-mark comfortably to set an imposing score for England to chase.
