South Africa prevails to conquest the T20I series by 2-1: Player Ratings from the Proteas’ series triumph against England
A glorious tour for the visitors continues as South Africa claims the T20I series against England despite going 0-1 down after the first fixture. Let’s take a look at the player ratings and detailed performances report of Team South Africa from this series.
Top Order
Quinton de Kock (2/10): The star South African wicketkeeper batter was the second-highest run-getter of the One-Day International campaign however, the table completely turned this around in the shortest format of cricket. de Kock had a forgettable individual outcome in the 20-over series against Englishmen as the former Proteas skipper stood 15th in the run-scoring charts of the series. He could fetch just a total of 17 runs from three innings including a duck in the decider fixture at Southampton.
The Dons of Proteas cricket
Reeza Hendricks (10/10): This away T20I tour of the Green and Yellows will be remembered for the heroics of Reeza Hendricks by the fans for a long time. The 32-year-old Gauteng opening batter made global headlines after setting willow on fire against the English bowling attack in their home conditions.
While chasing the mammoth target of 234 in the opening T20I, South Africa was down to two wickets at just seven runs and then Hendricks stood tall and stabilises the Proteas innings with his robust stand of 57 runs.
Hendricks smashed another half-century in the following fixture by scoring 53 runs off 32 balls with a strike rate of 165.62 and set a strong base for his nation to take the team total to 207 runs. It was followed by his third consecutive fifty as he turned out to be the highest scorer of the decider encounter scoring 70 runs as a winning contribution. Hendricks was chosen as Player of the Series in this historic T20I triumph of Proteas after notching a grand total of 180 runs from just three innings and with an astonishing average of 60.
Rilee Rossouw (8/10): This series is marked as the comeback of the 32-year-old explosive batter who made his return to the international stage after a long gap of 6 years. However, Rossouw left no stone unturned to make it more memorable after fetching 131 runs at a surreal economy rate of 170.13 along with a 65.50 average. Especially in the second fixture at Cardiff where the Green and Yellows staged a bounce-back after his unbeaten knock of 96 which also earned him Player of the Match honour.
Middle Order
Tristan Stubbs (7/10): The Proteas batting announced himself to the cricketing world after setting the stage on fire during the first game of the series. When he arrived at the crease, the Green and Yellows were having a middle order while chasing a high total but then the 21-year-old explosive batter stepped out and had two 50+ partnerships for the following two wickets. He struck two fours and eight sixes to bring up his individual tally to 72 off just 28 balls and the total was looking possible until he left the battlefield.
David Miller (5/10): The Killer Miller has succeeded in his very first full-fledged assignment as a Proteas 20-over skipper and registered an emphatic victory on English soil. The veteran may not have many runs from this series under his name but his contribution as a captain played a vital role in turning the challengers into the champions.
His field settings and bowling changes brought a freshness to the South African approach in this format as they were able to restrict the English side to the limit in the final two games despite conceding 234 runs in the first one.
Heinrich Klassen (4/10): The 31-year-old wicket-keeping batter was given the preference into the South African lineup ahead of the likes of Rassie van der Dussen owing to his explosive batting in the middle order.
However, 20 in the first game and 19 in the second one couldn’t give justice to his selection in the Proteas playing eleven despite the availability of many more options on the bench. Hence Klassen was replaced by Aiden Markram for the deciding encounter to add more sustainability for the do-or-die fixture.
All-rounders
Keshav Maharaj (6/10): Maharaj’s batting turn came only once in the series where he remained not out on the individual score of four. However, the Proteas side’s ODI vice-captain turned up big with the ball and contributed three wickets in the historic triumph of the Green and Yellows.
His best performance of the series came in the final fixture where he picked the first (Jos Buttler) and last (Jonny Bairstow) batter of the England innings to finish the bilateral campaign in style.
Andile Phehlukwayo (5/10): The constant selection of Andile Phehlukwayo in the Proteas eleven despite him being unable to redeem his place is a major talk in the cricketing world right now. Especially when there’s an alternative and experienced option of someone like Wayne Parnell and Dwaine Pretorious already available on the bench.
The 26-year-old Durban all-rounder picked five wickets but his economy rate of 11.36 was the highest in the South African bowling unit and cost big bucks to them at certain times.
Bowlers
Lungi Ngidi (9/10): The rise of Lungi Ngidi has been the biggest takeaway for the Green and Yellows from this series as there was always a need for a third pacer as good as Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje in the African lineup. Ngidi who could pick just a single wicket throughout the ODI series went bonkers in the shortest format by attaining seven wickets from just 8.4 bowled overs.
In the opening fixture where English batters were smashing them all over the park, the 26-year-old talisman ended up taking a five-wicket haul. He bowled 2.4 overs in the following game in which he picked two wickets from the last balls of his spell to roll down the English innings in the 17th over itself. This breakthrough outcome will help Ngidi to cement his place into the limited-overs lineup ahead of mega white-ball events which are just around the corner.
The magician trapped the Englishmen!
Tabraiz Shamsi (9/10): The inheritance of Imran Tahir’s legacy has finally proved himself to be good enough to step up into the big shoes of the latter one. Shamsi topped the wicket-taking charts of the T20I series by fetching a whopping total of eight wickets from three appearances at an astonishing average of just 12.50.
Tabraiz had a forgettable opening fixture of the series where he remained wicketless and conceded 49 runs off just a three-over spell. He took no time to recover from it and went on to pick three wickets at an economy rate of 6.8 runs per over. Then the decider encounter came and Shamsi brought up a five-wicket haul to restrict the Three Lions on 101 while defending to emerge victorious and also claimed the Player of the Match award.
Anrich Nortje (6/10): To manage the workload and keep their ace speedster fresh, South African team management kept Nortje out of the action during the first two fixtures of the series.
However, they went back to him to strengthen the bowling attack for the decider encounter as Kagiso Rabada was having a rough patch. In his only appearance, Nortje bowled only two overs but still ended up with a crucial wicket of Jason Roy and gave away only 12 runs in his short stint.
Kagiso Rabada (3/10): The lead knight of the Proteas pace battery was given rest for the One-Day Internationals and made a brief return to the side for the 20-over series. Although he could not make much difference to the game as Jonny Bairstow’s dismissal in the second T20I was the only wicket bagged by him in this series.
Rabada seemed off-color in his appearances and was also sidelined from the playing XI as his partner in crime Anrich Nortje replaced him for the decider fixture.