• De Kock hits 107 from 113 balls as world champions slip to defeat
So much for new dawns, new cycles, reboots of the reboot. In Cape Town England’s World Cup-winning 50-over team stuttered back into action with a performance that choked on its own ambition early on before falling back on an old-school rescue job from Joe Denly. By the end they were beaten easily under the evening lights as Quinton de Kock and Temba Bavuma flogged some poor bowling around Newlands.
There may be champion teams in the past roster of World Cup winners who could afford to lose players of the quality of Jofra Archer, Mark Wood, Jos Buttler, Adil Rashid and Ben Stokes, all injured or rested here. But on this evidence England are some way short of joining them.
Written by Barney Ronay at Newlands
This news first appeared on https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2020/feb/04/south-africa-england-first-odi-one-day-international-match-report under the title “De Kock leads South Africa’s seven-wicket defeat of England in first ODI”. Bolchha Nepal is not responsible or affiliated towards the opinion expressed in this news article.
