Ageas Bowl Audience Witness Record-Breaking Amla Magic

Match Report: England v South Africa ODI at The Ageas Bowl

England v South Africa
NatWest Series One Day International
Tuesday 28 August
The Ageas Bowl

Summary: South Africa beat England by 80 runs
South Africa: 287-5
England: 207 (40.4 ovs)
Scorecard

England Team
Cook*, Bell, Trott, Bopara, Morgan, Kieswetter, Patel, Bresnan, Swann, Anderson, Finn
South Africa Team
de Villiers+*, Smith, Amla, Elgar, Duminy, du Plessis, McLaren, Parnell, R Peterson, Morkel, Tsotsobe

In the first match of the one day series where play was possible, England were defeated by South Africa by a huge margin of 80 runs with almost 10 overs to spare. The game was watched by a near capacity crowd of 15,000 who were treated to a masterclass from one of the top batsmen in the world.

While South Africa posted the Ageas Bowl’s fourth highest one day international score of 287 for 5, Hashim Amla, who was out for 150 in the final over, was breaking records with his exceptional innings.

Opening the batting with Graeme Smith, in the first overs of the game Amla saw very little of the strike and had made just 16 by the end of the compulsory powerplay. The only hint of what might be to come was the quality of his strokeplay and his innings was a pleasure to watch from the very first ball.

But it was Smith who got South Africa off to a flying start and by the time he was out for 52 in the 20th over (caught behind off Bresnan) his team had made 95 runs and Amla was nicely poised on 42. Joined first by JP Duminy (run out in an act of self sacrifice for 14) and debutant Dean Elgar, who was beaten on 15 by a turning ball from Graeme Swann, he progressed to a 96-ball century.

By the time Amla had passed Ian Bell’s ODI record at the ground (126*), his captain AB de Villiers had come and gone for 28, eventually bowled by Swann after the previous over  when his apparently sound appeal for caught behind was not given. In the company of Faf du Plessis, Amla passed Hampshire batsmen James Vince, Sean Ervine and Michael Carberry to make the third highest List A score at the Ageas Bowl and his own highest in ODI’s at the same time.

For a successful reply England really needed Bell to make his third century on the ground. Once he recovered from the shock of Alastair Cook being bowled by Lonwabe Tsotsobe for a duck, Bell looked very much as though he was in the form to do it. He and Jonathan Trott kept pace with South Africa’s scoring rate and added 64 runs for the second wicket before Trott was caught in the deep off Morne Morkel.

It was the only significant partnership of the innings. Bell was on 39 when it ended but was bowled by Robin Peterson soon after for 45 and his was the joint highest score. When he was dismissed England lost all impetus. Craig Kieswetter briefly sparkled with a run-a-ball twenty before falling victim to a freak dismissal when his shot careered off AB de Villiers’ gloves and into Smith’s hands.

At this point England were still keeping up with South Africa’s run rate but the problem was wickets in hand, which meant that they couldn’t take the risks they needed to. After 30 overs they were actually five runs ahead at 146 for 5 but then wickets started to fall with Eoin Morgan holing out off Duminy for 27 and Tim Bresnan and Swann both caught behind for ducks in the same Wayne Parnell over.

There was a last flurry of excitement for the Ageas Bowl crowd when Samit Patel and Steven Finn put on 37 for the last wicket, including a pair of sixes from Patel which had the crowd cheering and singing the theme from The Great Escape. It was to no avail; Patel was caught behind for 45 in the 40th over and England were 207 all out, losing by 80 runs.

The win means that South Africa replace England on the top of the ICC One-Day rankings and England will need to regroup and fight hard to regain their title.

Words: Jane Cable
Images: LMI Photography / Ollie Zee

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