Key events
I’ll leave you with Simon Burnton’s report – night night.
Harry Brook’s verdict
I’m pretty lost for words! The way [Salt and Buttler] started the night off was just phenomenal. Me and Jos were in the field and we both said that we never thought anybody would get 300. But with the batting line-up we’ve got, there aren’t many heights we can’t reach.
[On Salt v Duckett v Smith at the top of the order] There are some tough decisions to be made. But we like headaches and it’s always good to have those debates.
South African captain Aiden Markram’s reaction
Yeah, tough one. Probably started getting it wrong from the toss, so that’s on me. Two masterclasses up front from [Salt and Buttler]. When you’re put under that much pressure it can be hard to come back. We’ll have to come up with some good plans and take it head-on again on Sunday.
We won’t be training tomorrow, it’s been a busy tour. But it’ll be nice to put our heads together, have a casual conversation over a coffee – feel the game and see what we can do better.
The player of the match is Phil Salt
That was really good fun. Obviously there was the personal milestone but also that we got 300 and won by such a big margin. You can’t ask for much more.
I was really clear, playing on my home ground, that the Powerplay was really important and I wanted to get us off to as good a start as possible.
Settle in, dear reader, for one statgasm after another
304-2 England highest’s T20I total
100-0 England’s highest Powerplay score
141* Phil Salt made England’s highest individual T20 score
146 runs England’s biggest T20I victory
Plenty more where they came from, but the presentations are about to start.
England win by 146 runs!
Wicket! South Africa 158 all out (Rabada c Archer b Dawson 9) South Africa are put out of their misery when Rabada slices Dawson to backward point, where Archer takes his fourth catch of the innings.
Eye-widening stuff from England, who have squared the T20 series with a devastating display. It’s their biggest victory in a T20 international and South Africa’s heaviest defeat.
16th over: South Africa 158-7 (Rabada 9, Williams 0) Williams defends the hat-trick balls, so Jacks will have to settle for figures of 1-0-2-2. Truly, we’ve seen worse.
“I genuinely don’t think Archer’s performance in the ODI at Southampton got the credit it deserved,” says Niall Mullen. “He bowled an unhittable line at a barely hittable speed with several jaffas thrown in for good measure.”
It’s probably because the game was almost over before his spell started, which stripped away some of its meaning. It was still awesome to watch, and almost chilling at times.
Wicket! South Africa 156-9 (Maphaka b Jacks 0)
Will Jacks is on a hat-trick! Maphaka reverse-clumps straight to Bethell at short cover and wanders off having made a golden duck.
Incidentally I wasn’t being entirely flippant about Jacks’ performance with the bat. His mere presence as a seventh batter is extremely important and allows the top order to play with a potentially devastating freedom.
Wicket! South Africa 156-8 (Fortuin c Buttler b Jacks 31)
Will Jacks, who had already had a superb game with the bat, strikes in his first over with the ball when Fortuin top-edges a slog-sweep straight up in the air.
A 39mph delivery! That might be the slowest by an England bowler on record. Even Jeremy Snape kept it in the 40s.
15th over: South Africa 156-7 (Fortuin 31, Rabada 8) Fortuin warms up for tomorrow’s T20 Finals Day – apparently he will play for Hampshire – by manhandling Rashid to the tune of 20 runs in four balls. Rashid responds with an even slower delivery (timed at 39mph!) that Fortuin toe-ends into the off side for no run.
“So,” writes Frinton, “if the required run rate goes above 36 is that the end of the game?”
Not quite. With no-balls and wides, you can concede any number of runs from a single over, at least in theory.
14th over: South Africa 135-7 (Fortuin 10, Rabada 8) The series decider is at Nottingham on Sunday afternoon.
The new batter KG Rabada clouts his first two deliveries for four.
Wicket! South Africa 127-7 (Stubbs c Archer b Dawson 23)
Tristan Stubbs slices Liam Dawson to short third, where Jofra Archer takes a simple catch.
13th over: South Africa 120-6 (Stubbs 23, Fortuin 3) Rashid toys with Stubbs, bowling a series of 45mph deliveries in an over that costs only three runs.
In time we may reflect on this as a seismic week for England’s new white-ball side. They’re still nowhere near in terms of consistency, but they have demonstrated their ceiling with two savage beatings of a good South African side.
12th over: South Africa 117-6 (Stubbs 22, Fortuin 1) Jofra is having quite a week: 9-3-18-4 in the ODI at Southampton and 3-0-25-3 tonight. One more wicket and he’d have combined figures of 8 for 43, and we could all celebrate an Ashes omen.
Wicket! South Africa 116-6 (Jansen ct and b Archer 0)
Jofra Archer gets his third wicket. Jansen pushes a slower ball back to Archer, who takes a fine low catch at the second attempt in his follow through.
11th over: South Africa 115-5 (Stubbs 21, Jansen 0) When he’s in form, Sam Curran is such a valuable addition to any England team. And he’s a winner: tonight will be his 66th in an England shirt from only 119 games.
Wicket! South Africa 115-5 (Ferreira c Buttler b Curran 23)
Sam Curran outsmarts his Oval Invincibles teammate Donovan Ferreira, who is surprised by a zippy short ball and top-edges a pull over his shoulder. Jos Buttler runs back towards fine leg to take the catch.
10th over: South Africa 109-4 (Stubbs 22, Ferreira 17) Donovan Ferreira smashes Rashid over midwicket for an amazing six. It hits the top of The Point, the tall suite that Lancashire built a few years ago, and drops from the heavens into the crowd. Nobody was hurt. But a bit of damage has been done to Rashid’s bowling figures, with three more fours making it 20 from the over.
Even an over like that has only just kept South Africa up with the rate. They need 196 from 60 balls.
9th over: South Africa 89-4 (Stubbs 16, Ferreira 3) Stubbs boffs Dawson into the crowd at midwicket. I mean, you might as well when you have the opportunity, dying game or not. The rest of the over is again really good from Dawson, who has an uncanny knack of sensing what the batter wants to do off the next ball.
8th over: South Africa 79-4 (Stubbs 8, Ferreira 1) Four runs and a wicket from Rashid’s first over. At the age of 37, he’s bowling better than ever; if only his shoulder was up to an Ashes tour, eh.
WICKET! South Africa 77-4 (Markram c Jacks b Rashid 41)
Adil Rashid comes out to play. His fourth ball is a 47mph tempter – why so fast, Dilly – that Markram slices straight to Will Jacks at long off. Markram screws his face up, Rashid clenches his fists in triumph.
7th over: South Africa 75-3 (Markram 41, Stubbs 7) Liam Dawson’s second ball is driven almost wearily down the ground for a huge six by Aiden Markram. That was a remarkable shot. The rest of the over is terrific, full of variation and with a sixth sense as to what the batters expect.
South africa need 230 from – sorry, what – 78 balls.
6th over: South Africa 66-3 (Markram 34, Stubbs 5) A quiet over from Luke Wood. South Africa are 34 behind on the comparison, and three wickets worse off.
Bis writes in to point out that Rohan Kanhai was known for his falling sweep – “and Mushtaq Ali who my late dad swore played such a shot in a match in Jorhat in the late 1940s.”
I had no idea about Kanhai, but here’s the proof. Did he play it off the quicks as well?
5th over: South Africa 58-3 (Markram 31, Stubbs 0) “I’m watching the game on TV with my ageing pops who is astonished at the score,” writes Lee Johnson. “What I found most astonishing about Salt’s remarkable innings is that it took until the 19th over – when Maphaka trod on the boundary sponge – for the commentators to finally use the obvious ‘rubbing salt into the wounds’. The NINETEENTH over! Remarkable.”
Maybe they felt a run-rate of 15 an over represented a bit more than a wound. Or, at best, a Monty Python flesh wound.
WICKET! South Africa 58-3 (Brevis c Archer b Curran 4)
Sam Curran, who struck with his first ball in Cardiff, does so with his fourth at Old Trafford. The dangerous Dewald Brevis mistimes a pull stroke, one hand coming off the bat, and offers a simple catch to Jofra Archer at mid-on.
This game may now be over, you know.
4th over: South Africa 53-2 (Markram 30, Brevis 0) “So the falling over shot is now definitely absolutely a distinct shot, I think?” wonders Luke Dealtry. “Falling over is parts of the mechanics, the thing that allows them to get in position. There’s no other way to play the particular ball to that particular place without hitting the turf. Pant the progenitor or who have I missed?”
I think so, yes, though I’m not the man I used to be as clued-up on such things as I once was. It’s definitely a distinct shot.
WICKET! South Africa 53-2 (Pretorious c Wood b Archer 2)
Two wickets in the over for Jofra. Lhuan-dre Pretorious tried to violate a wide slower ball over the leg side but could only slice it towards short third, where Luke Wood dived forward to take the catch.
WICKET! South Africa 50-1 (Rickelton c Dawson b Archer 20)
Glory be, a wicket. Rickelton beasted Archer down the ground for 4, 6 and 6 before flashing a pull towards midwicket, where Liam Dawson took an excellent leaping catch.
This game isn’t over, you know.
3rd over: South Africa 34-0 (Markram 30, Rickelton 4) Markram doesn’t think this game is over. He pillages 22 from Wood’s second over, including a devastating pull for six that goes miles over square leg and onto a hotel balcony.
Earlier in the over he mistimed a shot that teased Archer, running back from mid-on, before dropping through his hands. A tough chance, but one England will regret if Markram scores 214 not out.
2nd over: South Africa 12-0 (Markram 8, Rickelton 4) Jofra Archer, bowling for the first time since that brutish spell in Southampton on Sunday, starts with an even better over. It includes five dot balls to the left-handed Rickelton, whose only scoring shot is a thump down the ground for four.
1st over: South Africa 8-0 (Markram 8, Rickelton 0) A fine start from Luke Wood, who is becoming an increasingly persuasive option in this form of the game. Aiden Markram flicks a flat six over backward square but otherwise struggles to time – or in some cases even hit – Wood’s full-length inswingers.
The players are back on the field. Before they resume, a great spot from Tim de Lisle, who points out that the other England batters outscored Phil Salt 150-141.
Is Salt’s caution holding England back?