England remained unchanged for the third and final T20 which surprised many, while South Africa notably rested Rabada. SA won the toss and chose to bat, meaning England would chase for their third consecutive match.
England’s bowling started off pretty well, reducing SA for 64-3 off 9.3 overs; with Chris Jordan becoming England’s record T20 wicket taker and Ben Stokes reminding us how good he is with the ball with two wickets. However, a superb partnership from Faf du Plessis (52*) and Rassie van der Dussen (74*) punished some very sloppy bowling from England. This took SA to a very encouraging score of 191-3, a target that would surely be a challenge for England to chase?
Well it looked like it would be a very big challenge, as England started a little slowly and then lost Jason Roy immediately after he hit two boundaries. However this was just the start of the main event, as Dawid Malan came in and hit 3 boundaries in his first 3 balls (who said he was too slow starting for T20s?!) This was the beginning of the end for SA as Malan and Buttler then put on a masterclass in T20 batting; producing possibly the best partnership of T20I batting that we have ever seen. In the end, Malan finished on 99* and Buttler on 67* as England cruised to the 192 target with 14 balls to spare. Sipamla was the most costly bowler for SA, although Shamsi surprisingly did almost as poorly as he was hit to all areas of the ground by Malan who had previously struggled against him.
It was a simply awe-inspiring batting performance from two of the best T20 batsman in the world; showing why England must surely be favourites for next year’s World Cup.
This series has been a big success for England in many aspects, with Bairstow and Morgan showing they are suited to their new roles, Archer and Rashid showing they are two of the best white ball bowlers, and of course Malan and Buttler showing once again how unbelievable they are with the bat.
There should no longer be any question marks over Malan’s spot at 3, but questions still remain over Tom Curran and Jason Roy. TC must now be on borrowed time, and he was only trusted with two overs tonight, suggesting Mark Wood may come in for him in the next T20 series. Jason Roy is a more complicated one, and I’m sure that he will get the ODI series to find his form again, but time must now be running out for him to find that form.
Meanwhile, SA will be disappointed with the series. It was always going to be a difficult series and, with all players available and having played regularly, I am sure they will come back stronger and offer more resistance come the World Cup.
To finish, we’d like to award the following ‘Third Man Cricket’ Award for the series:
Man of the Series: Dawid Malan
Newcomer of the Series: George Linde
The tour of SA now moves onto the ODI series this Friday, where England will again be favourites despite Archer being rested.
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