‘Who changed the pitch mid-game?’ – Fans react to England’s batting collapse vs South Africa in ODI World Cup 2023
Defending champions England endured another miserable on the field on Saturday. The 20th game of the ODI World Cup 2023 saw South Africa play England in Mumbai. The match was one-sided as […]
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Oct 21, 2023 8:13 pm
Defending champions England endured another miserable on the field on Saturday. The 20th game of the ODI World Cup 2023 saw South Africa play England in Mumbai. The match was one-sided as South Africa posted 399/7 on the board.
This was the fourth game for both sides during the ODI World Cup 2023 tournament. The South Africans had won two games and lost one before this game. England meanwhile was coming into the game on the back of a 69-run loss to Afghanistan.
Temba Bavuma was ruled out of the game earlier in the day due to illness. Aiden Markram was given the captaincy and was asked to bat first by Jos Buttler who won the toss. Reeza Hendricks came in for Bavuma. Ben Stokes made his long-awaited comeback as David Willey and Gus Atkinson were the other changes to the team.
South Africa Cricket (Source-Twitter)
South African bowlers leave England in tatters –
Having been set a target of 400, the onus was on the English openers to give their team a good start. Jonny Bairstowwas the first to go when he was out for 10 caught by Van Der Dussen off Lungi Ngidi.
Marco Jansen struck twice in succession first dismissing Joe Root for 2 in the final ball of the 4th over. Then the left-arm pacer got the wicket of Dawid Malan for 6 in the first ball of the 6th over.
Kagiso Rabada made an instant impact when he took a simple return to catch to dismiss Ben Stokes for 5. There was a mini stand of 29 runs between Jos Buttler and Harry Brook for the 6th wicket.
The introduction of Gerald Coetzee changed this as he dismissed both the batters. Jos Buttler was the first to go for 15 caught behind by De Kock. Two balls later Coetzee trapped Harry Brook out LBW for 17 to leave England in tatters at 68/6. Coetzee struck again to make it 84/7 when he got Adil Rashid for just 10 runs,
A win will give South Africa a chance to keep their number 3 status in the points table. Meanwhile, this loss will affect England as their run rate has taken a huge beating.
