Your essential guide to the second ODI between England and the Proteas, which gets under way on Saturday.
SCENESETTER
The Proteas might find themselves one match away from losing the Royal London One Day Series against England, but one defeat is certainly no cause for panic. If there’s ever a time for a wake-up call, it’s in the first match of a series against the hosts and pre-tournament favourites of the Champions Trophy.
Russell Domingo’s side were outplayed in the opener at Headingley. The side’s bowling attack is moulded around Kagiso Rabada’s firepower with the new ball and Imran Tahir’s deception in the middle overs, but they both went missing on Wednesday. What that has at least answered, is the importance of Morne Morkel. The short-ball ploy worked at times throughout England’s innings, and the Proteas have to make that work more in their favour. Ten overs of Morkel to assist Rabada’s workload, as his side’s frontline paceman, will certainly aid that cause.
England bat deep, and it’s a daunting prospect when you know their No 7 is capable of smacking 77 off 51 balls, but if the Proteas can get on top of the English top-order early, then a collective batting performance from the top six – something we perhaps haven’t seen enough of – will reinforce why the Proteas are the No 1 side in the world.
KEEP AN EYE ON
It wasn’t an IPL campaign to remember for De Villiers. He exploded in his opening match with 89, but imploded from there, together with the rest of a Royal Challengers Bangalore lineup that, bar Virat Kohli, settled for last place and a handsome pay packet. The skipper hit seven fours for his 45 off 38 in the first ODI, and who knows what could have come of that chase had he stuck around. With Faf du Plessis and Hashim Amla scoring industrious fifties at Headingley, and Quinton de Kock never too far away from a huge knock, the side don’t rely on AB to produce the goods anymore, but a big contribution from him will lead to results.
England have built up a reputation for boasting a healthy stock of South African-born players in their lineups in recent years, but only one makes the cut in the ODI side these days, and he’s the one under pressure to make runs. Durban-born Jason Roy had an anti-climactic debut IPL campaign, with a high score of 31 from the three matches he was chosen to play in, and followed that up with 0 and 20 against Ireland. It’s also worth mentioning that in the five-match run-fest between these two sides in South Africa early last year, Roy only managed 96 runs from five matches at an average of 19.20. His place in the side is secure, but more is expected of him.
FORM
South Africa: LWLWL
England: WWWWW
TEAMS:
Not much tinkering to be had with two games remaining before the Champions Trophy starts, but the Proteas have to find room for Morkel. With Andile Phehlukwayo taking a couple of important wickets in the opener, Wayne Parnell will likely be the one replaced.
South Africa: 1 Quinton de Kock 2 Hashim Amla 3 Faf du Plessis 4 AB de Villiers 5 JP Duminy 6 David Miller 7 Chris Morris 8 Andile Phehlukwayo 9 Kagiso Rabada 10 Morne Morkel 11 Imran Tahir
Ben Stokes has a knee scare and limped off at Headingley – disastrous signs for England who largely build their team around the IPL MVP. Should he be fit, they are unlikely to change their side, but David Willey would be the most likely replacement, as they’ll be more short of a bowler than a batsman, such is the make-up of the side.
England: 1 Jason Roy 2 Alex Hales 3 Joe Root 4 Eoin Morgan 5 Ben Stokes/David Willey 6 Jos Buttler 7 Moeen Ali 8 Chris Woakes 9 Adil Rashid 10 Liam Plunkett 11 Mark Wood
STATS:
– Amla needs just 47 more runs to reach 7 000 ODI runs. He has 13 innings in which to get there ahead of India’s Virat Kohli, and continue his record of being the fastest batsman to 2 000, 3 000, 4 000, 5 000 and 6 000 runs.
– Both de Villiers and Amla have 24 career centuries, the most by any South African in ODIs.
– The Proteas have won both of their previous matches at the Rose Bowl. The first win came against Zimbabwe on 10 July 2003, the Proteas’ second win came against England on 28 August 2012.
– South Africa’s match against Zimbabwe, 2003, was also the first ever ODI on the ground.
– Hashim Amla holds the record for the highest score by a South African at the ground (150 off 124 balls) which came against England in 2012.
QUOTES:
Faf du Plessis on the first ODI: ‘We made quite a lot of mistakes in the first match. The positive to take from that is that we played at 50 percent and we still got ourselves into a position where we could have won the game.’
Ali ahead of the second ODI: ‘We were 2-0 up against them in South Africa [in 2015-16] and we lost 3-2. They’re a very good side, and we know that.’
Amla on Morgan’s century in the first ODI: ‘You get guys batting at four and five coming late in the game and getting a hundred, that’s why Morgan’s innings was a game-changer.’
AB after first ODI loss: ‘They dominated the bowling and manipulated us, probably 20-30 above par and we didn’t bat well enough. But congrats to them.’
Photo: Philip Brown/Getty Images
