England surprised South Africa in the first match of the World T20 for both teams, chasing down a total of 229 with two balls to spare.
Final score
South Africa 4/2229
England 8/230
After England dropped their first game at the ICC World T20, the pressure is on to get a victory over South Africa who look to be in strong form. Join The Roar for live scores of this very important match from 1am (AEDT).
England were incredibly unconvincing in their first match as they went down to a Chris Gayle-led West Indies. Gayle would record the fastest ever T20 century off just 48 balls as the men from the Carribean successfully chased down 182 in 18 overs.
Most of the batsmen for England played a steady hand, but none were ever going to be able to match the brutality of Gayle. It has to be questioned though, considering England only lost six wickets, if they could have gone a bit harder a little earlier in their innings.
Apart from Chris Jordan, all of England’s bowlers struggled and went at over 10 runs per over.
South Africa on the other hand have a strong squad for the World T20 with Faf Du Plesis again to captain them. The most explosive batsmen in world cricket – besides Chris Gayle – in AB De Villiers lines up, as does Dale Steyn.
South Africa’s most recent T20 series was purely for World Cup preperation, as they went down two-one at home against Australia. The Proteas completely underperformed and would have been incredibly disappointed with their performance.
South Africa did bounce back in a WT20 warm up match against host nation India though, taking a commanding eight-wicket victory with three overs to spare.
England recently had a full tour of South Africa, where they were able to walk away with an unexpected win in the Test series before crashing and burning after taking victory in the first two One Day International matches.
A two-nil loss in the T20 series will be of particular concern, and despite being in completely different conditions, hands South Africa the advantage in this match. England not only lost, but were belted in the second match of that series by nine wickets.
Prediction
South Africa should be able to get the job done here. England simply don’t look threatening with too much youth in their side, and not enough experience.
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