Key occasions
1st over: England 1-0 (Roy 1, Malan 0) Jansen with the brand new ball, blue skies, little fluffy clouds, two slips, moustached bowler, stubbly batter, 5 dots.
Right here’s a fab piece (because of Rob for pointing it out) on how little England’s greatest ODI workforce have performed collectively because the greatestTM match of all time.
A masterclass from Nasser on Harry Brook. “Take a look at his knees, he’s a lot decrease in his stance to a spinner than to a fast bowler.” Athers and Nasser dish up spoonfuls of reward, however Athers means that he may discover it simpler on the flat pitches of the subcontinent than on bouncier pitches – his file within the Massive Bash isn’t pretty much as good as within the PSL.
Tom Curran steps again from purple ball cricket
Surrey have introduced that Sam Curran’s older brother Tom goes taking an indefinite break from purple ball cricket to prioritise his psychological and bodily well being after a run of accidents.
“The final couple of years haven’t been straightforward for me. I’ve had a number of time and this isn’t a call that I’ve taken evenly,” mentioned Curran.
“Some decisions in life I don’t assume you’ll ever be 100% certain and that is positively a kind of. However the place I discover myself at this precise second, I really feel like it’s the proper resolution for my physique and for my psychological well being.
“I’m positively not ruling out enjoying purple ball cricket once more sooner or later, and I really feel like I’ve unfinished enterprise on this format for each Surrey and England. However till I can really feel 100% dedicated and assured in my physique to be performing day in and day trip for Surrey within the County Championship, I really feel that placing all my time and focus into on our Vitality Blast marketing campaign this yr is the correct factor to do.
“I do know it isn’t ultimate information for everybody at Surrey and our followers. However I needed to say a really heartfelt thanks to Alec Stewart for the help and understanding of my resolution. Surrey has given me every little thing and is my residence. I like it very a lot and my hope is everybody else will see and perceive my resolution as he has achieved.”
He made his maiden first-class century towards Northants final summer season.
Groups: South Africa – three modifications!
South Africa XI: Reeza Hendricks, Temba Bavuma (c), Rassie van der Dussen, Aiden Markram, Heinrich Klaasen (wk), David Miller, Marco Jansen, Wayne Parnell, Sisanda Magala, Lungi Ngidi, Tabraiz Shamsi.
No De Kock. after his hand harm within the final sport, Maharaj and Nortje additionally miss out. Hendricks, Shamsi and Magala return..
Groups: England – Jofra returns!
England XI: Jason Roy, Dawid Malan, Ben Duckett, Harry Brook, Jos Buttler (c, wk), Moeen Ali, Chris Woakes, S Curran, Adil Rashid, Jofra Archer, Reece Topley.
Olly Stone sits again on the bench.
South Africa win the toss and can bowl
Extra luck with the coin for Bavumba! Seems scorching and sunny on the market.
Preamble
Good morning, farewell January and a really blissful February 1 to you all. This mini-series between South Africa winds up within the shoulder pads and glitter of diamond-mining city Kimberley. South Africa maintain a shock 2-0 lead after following up their first win with a barnstorming run chase at Bloemfontein on Sunday, impressed by 100 from Temba Bavumba.
One other win in the present day would shuffle South Africa as much as eighth within the World Cup Tremendous League desk, that means they escape the ignominy of the World Cup playoffs in Zimbabwe. England, at the moment mendacity fourth, are in mid-winter stoop – 5 losses in a row, their worst ODI run since 2014. There are mitigating components – that dropping run contains the ODI–series-no-one-wanted-to-play in December towards Australia, plus all joint-honours gamers being away on Check duties – however Jos Buttler will wish to garnish these two lonely wins England have notched up since he took over correctly after the run-tastic journey to the Netherlands.
It must be enjoyable – and the recovered Phil Salt and rested Jofra Archer are within the combine to play. All of it begins at 11am GMT, hope you may make it.