The England team has won the KFC T20 series 3-0 against Proteas. This clean sweep has made England the no.1 team in the ICC T20I rankings.
With the full-strength team, England managed to chase all the targets given to them by South Africa in the T20Is series.
Both teams’ batters had dominated the entire series, and there was very little help for the bowlers to take wickets.
England has become a stronger side than before in the T20I’s. They have changed the way of approaching a T20 match just like they did for the ODI’s (which eventually won them ICC World Cup 2019) and are indeed a team to beat.
Michael Vaughan had tweeted-” Whoever beats England will win the T20 World Cup next year … #JustSaying #SAvENG”. He indirectly meant that England would play the final of the T20 World Cup 2021 and could possibly win it.
England had been runners up in the 2016 World Cup as they lost to West Indies courtesy of Carlos Brathwaite (‘remember the name’) hitting four sixes in the final over. They (England) will look to come back more robust in the upcoming world cup 2021 in India.
England has the ideal T20 batting line-up currently with Butler, Roy, Bairstow, Malan, Morgan, Stokes. All the batsmen are equally explosive and can be match-winners on their given day.
The competition amongst the top-order batsmen is so high that the captain Eoin Morgan is forced to bat down the order at number 5 or 6.
Dawid Malan is in the form of life as he has recently broken the ICC T20I’s rankings record (915 points) by scoring consistent runs for England in the South Africa series. His fifty in the second T20 and record opening partnership (167 runs for 2nd wicket) with Jos Butler in the third T20I had helped England chase 191 rubs with two overs to spare, making him the best T20I batsmen in the world. He was also given the man of the series for his 173 runs in 3 matches at a strike-rate of 161.68.
However, their bowling department needs to perform well as they had given away too many runs in the slog overs. Jofra Archer, who had an outstanding IPL season, looked off-color in this T20I series.
On the other hand, the South African openers failed to give the team a middle-order foundation to the post-high total. Both De Kock and Bavuma got a decent start, but neither batted long or anchored the inning.
All pressure was on former captain Faf Du Plessis and the other middle-order batters. Faf was very consistent with regular half-centuries giving the team a competitive score to defend in the three matches.
Vander Dussen played a good knock of 74 of 32 balls in the third T20I, especially after a slow start by the openers, thereby taking the total to 191. However, their bowlers failed to defend the target yet again.
With Rabada getting injured, South African bowling has looked weak with only one strike bowler Andrich Nortje in the team.
With the series win, England will take the confidence ahead of the ODI series.
Just in: Recently, the ODI match, which was scheduled on 4th December 2020, has been postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic (COVID-19 tested positive player). Hence the game has been rescheduled to 6th December 2020 and the second match on 7th December.
England will be favorites to win this ODI series as well. They might try to experiment with new players considering the tight revised ODI schedule.
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Tags: cricket, england, south africa