England beat South Africa by 2 wickets, achieve 2nd highest T20 target

MUMBAI:England beat South Africa in a high-scoring World T20 match by 2 wickets and achieve the 2nd highest successful chase in T20 historyhere at the Wankhede Stadium on Friday.

Chasing a massive target of 230,Joe Root hit 83 asEngland reached their target with two balls to spare to register their first win in two matches in the Group One.

This is 3rd time that South Africa has lost a match after scoring 200 or more runs, jointly most with England.

Besides Root, opener Jason Roy made 43 off 21 balls and Jos Buttler 21 to help their side achieve the once-looked-impossible target. England were also helped by wayward bowling by the Proteas, who gave away a whooping 26 vital runs in extras.

All South African bowlers went for plenty of runs. Kyle Abbott ended up with best figures of 3 for 41 while Rabada grabbed 2 for 50 and Imran Tahir and JP Duminy shared a wicket each.

Earlier, Quinton de Kock and Hashim Amla struck half-centuries at the top while JP Duminy provided the late assault as South Africa posted a massive 229-4.

England were on the receiving end of a brutal onslaught from West Indies opener Chris Gayle during Wednesday´s defeat when their spinners struggled to grip the wet ball and that prompted captain Eoin Morgan to field after winning the toss.

But Amla (58) and De Kock (52) continued to torment the English bowlers, plundering 96 runs off seven overs during an explosive opening stand.

South Africa, one of the favourites to win the tournament, opted to use Amla and De Kock as openers and it proved it was the right decision from the onset.

De Kock, who thrashed David Willey for 20 in the third over, hit seven fours and three sixes during his 24-ball knock before he fell to off-spinner Moeen Ali.

Amla, who was dropped on nine by Reece Topley off Ali, hit an identical number of boundaries before falling to the off-spinner.

Duminy (54 not out) and David Miller (28 not out) provided the finishing touches for South Africa with an unbroken fifth-wicket stand of 60.England paceman Chris Jordan conceded four fours and a six in the fifth over and finished with figures of 0-49 in three overs.

Topley gave away 33 in his two overs.

Here are statistical highlights of the match:

• It was the 2nd highest successful chase in T20 history, after West Indies’ chase of 232 [scoring 236] against South Africa in 2015
• This was 7thincident when a team failed to defend a target of more than 200 in a T20I, South Africa is involved in three of them
• Overall, only 10thincident when a team lost the T20I despite scoring 200, England and South Africa being involved in three apiece
• The match aggregate of 459 runs is 2nd highest match aggregate in all T20Is after 467 runs scored by West Indies & South Africa in Jan 2015, highest in a World T20 match
• 229-4 by South Africa is also 2ndhighest first innings score by a losing team. The highest 231-7 was also scored by South Africa last year
• England’s 230/8 is second highest total in a World T20 game after Sri Lanka’s 260-6 vs Kenya in inaugural edition of ICC World T20
• 89/3 by England in power-play overs is the 3rd highest score to be achieved in 1st 6 overs. 91 by Netherlands is highest, 90 by NZ is 2nd

– Faizan Lakhani contributed to reporting