South Africa vs. England: Winners and Losers from 3rd ODI
South Africa notched up a dominant seven-wicket win over England in Centurion to keep their hopes in the five-match one-day international series alive.
England now lead the series 2-1 as the teams head to the Wanderers for the fourth match.
The Proteas had an emphatic 239-run stand by Hashim Amla and Quinton de Kock to thank for becoming the first side to chase more than 300 in an international at Centurion, but there are still a few questions hanging over their heads. We’ve picked some winners and losers from the match. Add yours in the comments.
Winner: South Africa's Openers
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Centuries from Hashim Amla and Quinton de Kock laid the platform for South Africa’s epic chase. While De Kock has already scored a hundred in this series, Amla had looked just a little bit off colour in the one-day series, right after he’d scored a century in the final Test.
When these two are in form, though, South Africa are a very difficult side to beat so they’ll be hoping their openers can kick on at the Wanderers, too.
Winner: South Africa's Fielding
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Despite South Africa’s bowlers being plodded all around the park, the fielding looked a bit more lively than it has in this series so far.
In his post-match interview with SuperSport, AB de Villiers said as much and highlighted that he felt there was really good intensity in the field even though things weren’t going their way.
It’s perhaps the "spark" that’s missing from this South Africa, and if they can ignite that for the rest of the series, they could very well pull off a great escape.
Winner: Adil Rashid
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On a pitch that was clearly very good and very conducive to batting, Adil Rashid bowled exceptionally.
Rashid only picked up one wicket for his efforts, but he had an economy rate of 4.50, and for that, he deserves heaps of credit.
This was the first time in this series that England's inexperienced bowlers really came under pressure, and things might have been different—both for England and for Rashid's wicket column—if they had somebody like Stuart Broad to offer some support.
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Loser: South Africa's Team Selection
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South Africa will probably say it doesn’t matter considering they won, but their team selection was curious.
With the fifth bowler an issue recently and the middle order shaky, they dropped Rilee Rossouw and brought in David Wiese. Farhaan Behardien and JP Duminy stayed in the team when, all things considered, one of them should probably have been the player to go if an all-rounder like Wiese was brought in.
Even more curious was selecting Wiese and not Chris Morris. The fifth bowler has been an issue for some time now with the part-timers often conceding more than 60 runs in their 10 overs. That’s exactly the same number of runs that Wiese conceded on Tuesday, so it’s back to the drawing board for South Africa.
Loser: England's Decision at the Toss
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South Africa had the advantage of local knowledge with Centurion being AB de Villiers’s home turf, and despite losing the toss, De Villiers got what he wanted anyway: to bowl.
Defending a total at Centurion is often difficult because of the dew, but England still fancied their chances. De Villiers was unfussed and knew it would be possible to chase a big total, despite the fact that 300 or more had never been chased in a day-nighter at this ground.
Loser: Pinch Hitting
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The concept of pinch-hitting is one that still hovers around cricketing circles, despite being something that has lost relevance in the modern game.
South Africa tried to promote David Wiese up the order on Tuesday to do a bit of pinch-hitting, but he lasted just four balls and decided that reverse sweeping against the spin was the best way to go about things, despite there being little, if any, scoreboard pressure.
Still, at least South Africa have shown they can think out of the box, right?
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