South Africa Punish England
17th September, 2007
South Africa showed flashes of quality as they dominated England in the Twenty20 World Championships on Sunday. Albie Morkel was the star man for South Africa, hitting 43 runs from just 20 balls to resurrect the Proteas’ innings, before taking 2-12 with the ball.
After winning the toss, England captain Paul Collingwood choose to bowl first on a quick and damaged pitch at Newlands. It looked like a good decision with Stuart Broad (3-37) claiming two early wickets to put England in a good position. The South African middle order failed to make the most of some useful starts from AB de Villiers and Mark Boucher, with Shaun Pollock then top edging a pull off James Anderson for a first ball duck. Justin Kemp followed shortly after, caught behind from the first ball of the 15th over. At 94-6 the hosts looked to be in trouble. Morkel then came in and, after being dropped on 14, went on the ruin Chris Schofield’s (1-34) figures with four sixes, including three in a row, allowing South Africa to post a respectable 154-8.
England came in got off to a bad start, with a wicket maiden in Pollock’s first over. South-African born Kevin Pietersen then came in to a hostile reception to join Matt Prior, briefly bringing the innings to life with three quick boundaries. Pietersen then fell foul to a controversial run out decision, with his bat being knocked out of his hand when diving to make up ground from Ntini’s direct hit. Collingwood then went for a golden duck, and England’s challenge then never really materialised. Failure to find the boundary enough times saw them finish well short on 135-7. The result leaves England bottom of Group E, but victories against New Zealand and India on Tuesday and Wednesday will see them through to the semi-finals. England are now 20/1 to win the competition at Betdaq.
