Jonny Bairstow's highest T20 score carries England to victory

Saturday, 28 November 2020 - 9:04

Jonny+Bairstow%27s+highest+T20+score+carries+England+to+victory+
England 183 for 5 (Bairstow 86*, Linde 2-20) beat South Africa 179 for 6 (van der Dussen 58, S Curran 3-28) by five wickets

England overcame the problems at the top of the order with a power packed performance by Johnny Bairstow who was pushed to the middle as Eoin Morgan juggled with the batting order yet again. Jonny Bairstow's highest T20I score carried England to victory over South Africa in the first T20I in Cape Town.

South Africa who were keeping the run rate under control and making the chase difficult was undone by the 17th over from Beuran Hendricks that went for 28 runs altering the course of the game. 

Ben Stokes and Bairstow steadied the middle order until Stokes in a rare misjudgement pulled a half tracker straight to the fielder leaving room for South Africa to come back in.   

F du Plessis top scored for South Africa scoring 58 in 40 balls. Sam Curran bowled intelligently to capture 3 wickets for a miserly spell of four overs that only went for 28 runs. 

In the England innings Bairstow remained unbeaten on 86 from 48 balls, while new comer George Linde bowled impressively for South Africa taking 2/20 in his 4 overs.   

SCORECARD SUMMARY
SOUTH AFRICA179/6(20 overs)
Faf du Plessis 58 (40), Rassie van der Dussen 37 (28)
Sam Curran 3/28(4), Jofra Archer1/28(4)

ENGLAND183/5(19.2 overs)
Jonny Bairstow 86* (48), Ben Stokes 37 (27)
George Linde 2/20(4), Lungi Ngidi 2/31(3.2)

Post match presentation 

Jonny Bairstow (man of the match) "Really pleasing to start the series with some runs, everyone's happy in the camp. Change of role is something you have to enjoy, you learn to craft your innings, and if it continues, great. Different surfaces will change the order but we're very flexilble. I was happy with how I played [in the IPL], Disappointing not to finish. Newlands can be slow, but Paarl can be a cracker of a wicket. Got to adapt to those conditions. The ball into the pitch was tricky, so maintaining your weight forward [for the slower balls] was important. Tricky with some bowlers bowling 140 clicks.

"The length of our batting, with Adil and Jofra at 10 and 11, you are always in the game."

Quinton de Kock "We thought it was a good total, didn't come off tonight. I don't think it was that one over, Jonny and Ben built a partnership, Jonny batted really well, changed his gameplan to the pitch. George [Linde] has bowled really well in the nets, happy for him, a good day for him."

"Small things in the field we could have done differently, match awareness. We didn't play badly, they played really well."

Eoin Morgan "Pleasing because we were average apart from two or three guys. Chasing was difficult, especially three-down, but Jonny and Ben set it up nicely, to win when you don't play your best is nice. With the ball, we missed areas, a tad too full, and three-down early without support and partnerships...

"Collectively, regardless of the team and the time around each other, the more we play the more we will gel. Not doom and gloom, nice to start with a win, but we need to be doing the right things. We had a lot to make up."






 


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