Cape Town — England captain Jos Buttler, Harry Brook and Moeen Ali struck half-centuries to lead their team to an impressive 342/7 in the second one-day international against South Africa at the Mangaung Oval in Bloemfontein on Sunday.
Buttler top-scored with 94 not out, Brook 80 and Moeen 51.
It surpassed what SA managed to defend in the first ODI on Friday evening, despite the surface England initially encountered being quite different.
It was the reason why SA captain Temba Bavuma elected to insert England.
His bowling unit certainly responded during the early stages with Lungi Ngidi, who was back in the line-up for the rested Kagiso Rabada, finding significant movement off the surface.
Ngidi was rewarded for his efforts when went through the defences of Friday night’s centurion Jason Roy.
Bavuma’s decision certainly looked to be vindicated when the impressive Wayne Parnell also trapped fellow opener Dawid Malan LBW to reduce England to 33/2 after 6.3 overs.
SA would have sensed an opportunity to get into the England middle order, especially after Brook was dismissed for a duck on his ODI debut a couple of days ago.
However, Brook has not been the most in-form batter in the world across the other two formats without reason.
He initially formed a 49-run partnership with Ben Duckett (20) to stabilise England’s innings before combining with his skipper Buttler to put the SA bowlers under pressure.
The pair added 73 off just 65 balls before he fell to a sucker punch offered up by Aiden Markram to depart for 80 off 75 balls (7x4, 5x6).
England maintained their momentum, and in fact, accelerated even further through Moeen (51) and Buttler (94 not out) with another 101-run partnership that really placed the visitors in position for a full out assault in the final 10 overs.
SA seemed to be keeping a lid on proceedings though when Anrich Nortje clean bowled Moeen and starved Buttler from the strike.
However, Sam Curran, who has struggled in the SA20, rediscovered his long-range hitting ability with a few sweetly-struck blows off Ngidi at the death.
Curran carved out 28 off 17 balls (1x4, 3x6) before Buttler finished with a flurry that saw England plunder 60 runs off the final four overs.
Proteas wicket-keeper Quinton de Kock left the field after suffering a blow to his finger, which forced Heinrich Klaasen to take over the wicket-keeping duties for the remainder of the match.
De Kock was, though, cleared to bat after undergoing an X-ray.
Scorecard
England: 342/7 (Buttler 94*, Brook 80, Moeen 51, Nortje 2/64, Parnell 1/54)
*South Africa require 343 runs to win the series
IOL Sport