Buttler century hands England victory in rain-affected ODI

David Clough 10:36 04/02/2016
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  • Top of his game: Jos Buttler.

    Jos Buttler’s second successive one-day international century, and a touch of all-round brilliance from Ben Stokes, helped England to victory in a rain-interrupted run-fest against South Africa.

    Buttler (105) followed up his 46-ball hundred, in his last attempt in this format against Pakistan in Dubai, with another blaze of boundaries as England piled up their second-highest ODI total of 399 for nine.

    Quinton de Kock’s career-best 138 not out, his ninth ODI hundred and third in his last four innings, kept South Africa in contention at the Mangaung Oval. But when a forecast storm wiped out any further play, the hosts’ 250 for five in 33.3 overs was 39 runs too few according to Duckworth-Lewis, and England went 1-0 up with four to play.

    They fell just short of their alltime best 408 for nine, against New Zealand at Edgbaston just last summer – with half-centuries from Alex Hales (57), Joe Root (52) and Stokes (57) contributing to a national record 15 sixes.

    Then despite De Kock’s 67-ball hundred, South Africa’s chase was just off the pace when the rain arrived.

    Stokes had taken the breath away with a wonderful one-handed catch on the long-on boundary off Moeen Ali (three for 43) to restrict the dangerous AB de Villiers to single-figures – a telling intervention, given the small margins between two powerhouse line-ups on a very good pitch.

    Buttler’s fourth ODI century was, curiously, his slowest – but pretty good going by anyone else’s standards, coming from 73 balls and containing 10 fours and five sixes after England had won the toss.

    Openers Jason Roy, cleared to play after recovering from a back spasm, and Hales each did their considerable bit to set the tempo. Roy took particular toll of Marchant de Lange, in a new-ball spell of 3-0-31-0, only to then poke a catch to cover two short of his 50 in Morne Morkel’s first over.

    Another change at the Loch Logan End, De Lange back this time, did for Hales too – mistiming to mid-off, after he had passed his 50 in 40 balls.

    Eoin Morgan responded by promoting Buttler – and as in England’s previous ODI, it proved a wise move. Root facilitated Buttler in a stand of 97, rotating the strike and picking off the bad ball, until he was yorked by Chris Morris (three for 74).

    Morgan could not keep Buttler company so substantially, chipping a catch off Imran Tahir which was well held by Morkel – running in from the long-off boundary.

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