The purple patch for Reeza Hendricks continues, as he’s notched up his third consecutive half-century and led another solid showing for the Proteas.
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It was another circumspect start after SA, yet again, lost Quinton de Kock early. Hendricks was biding his time, but Rilee Rossouw pushed on from where he left off with another counterattack. He took down Chris Jordan for four boundaries in his first over, and just when he was starting to hurt the opposition, there came another twist.
The introduction of Moeen Ali did the trick once more. Rossouw was bowled, and England got themselves a very crucial opening.
Hendricks and Markram did well to set up the platform, even though runs had dried up after a short rain interruption. Fortunately, they were frequently getting twos and the poor deliveries went to the boundary. Hendricks would reach a half-century in 41 deliveries, but that was the juncture when he’d step on the gas.
After three boundaries off Sam Curran, the Hendricks show came to an end at 70 after he top-edged to the keeper.
Markram would reach a half-century of his own after a couple of boundaries at the death, and David Miller’s priceless cameo of 22 from 8 would set up the much-anticipated late surge that the Proteas badly needed.
Interestingly, nobody cleared the boundary until the penultimate over, in which Miller would finally do the honours.
David Willey was the pick of the English bowlers and returned for an incisive final over, picking up the wickets of the skipper and Tristan Stubbs to close out a wonderful spell. The left-armer claimed three wickets, and limited the damage towards the very end.
Once again, South Africa have plenty of runs on the board. Could they have crossed the 200 threshold? That could’ve happened with a few more boundaries in the middle overs. But invariably, this will be another tough target for England, even though they have the batting firepower to do so.
SA 191/5 in 20 overs (Hendricks 70, Markram 51* – Willey 4-1-25-3)
