Cape Town — Dwaine Pretorius produced an inspired spell to rip through England’s top-order before the hosts limped to 201 all out in the rain-reduced second ODI at Old Trafford.
Persistent rain during the early afternoon forced the players to remain in the changerooms until the toss at 4:25pm local time. The match has been reduced to 29 overs per team.
England, though, only utilised 28.1 overs after Pretorius found the overcast conditions to his liking. He managed to swing the new ball both ways and reaped the rewards removing Ben Stokes’ replacement Phil Salt for 17 before dismissing Joe Root (1) and Jonny Bairstow (28) within two balls of each other.
With captain Keshav Maharaj already sending Jason Roy (14) back to the changeroom earlier, England were in deep trouble at 62/4 after just 8.4 overs.
The world champions soon slipped to 72/5 when Moeen Ali (6) swung Maharaj straight down deep mid-wicket’s throat.
The Proteas kept chipping away at England’s middle-order with Tabraiz Shamsi getting into the act by dismissing captain Jos Buttler for 17.
England’s middle-to-lower order then staged a mini-recovery through local hero Liam Livingstone and Sam Curran. Curran began the charge with a monstrous straight six of Shamsi before Livingstone launched Anrich Nortje for three successive sixes and a boundary.
But just when England’s innings seemed to be gathering some sort of momentum, Nortje had the last laugh when the speedster deceived Livingstone with a slower ball. The Old Trafford crowd visibly sighed upon Livingstone’s dismissal for 38 off 26 balls.
Curran (35) and David Willey (25) tried to keep the innings afloat with a couple of cameos, but South Africa will be well pleased with their efforts with the ball and in the field.
Second ODI, Old Trafford
England: 201 all out (Livingstone 38, Pretorius 4/36, Shamsi 2/39. Nortje 2/53)