That's it from us folks. Hope you enjoyed our coverage. Have a good night!
That's it from us folks. Hope you enjoyed our coverage. Have a good night!
Here's what the captains had to say:
Jos Buttler: I thought we had a really good score. Dawid Malan played on a different wickets altogether. The rest of us, he made us look really dull on debut. The guys knew exactly their plans on the field. Credit to the guys, they pretty much captained themselves. Liam Plunkett has been pretty consistent for us for two years. You look around teams around the world, there are players missing out due to injuries.
AB de Villiers: They played better cricket throughout the series. We gave a probably 20 odd more runs in the field and that cost us. Not catching and all but we fumbled a bit. We let it go in the first 10 overs. Credit to Dane Paterson for an amazing spell today. Liam Plunkett and a couple of seam bowlers bowled really well. It is really difficult to get away with a bit of pressure. Only 19 runs short. It comes down to what we did on the field today. I was always going to go, I was ready for his next over. Credit to him (Mason Crane), stuck to his guns and got me out in the end. He was always going to be the guy to go after.
Dawid Malan (Man of the Match): It was (worth waiting for). It does get tough but then you look at someone like Bairstow. The first few balls, there were sort of nerves but you let the body get used to. It was pretty tough to score on good lengths. Was two paced for sure. Definitely, after one game, you cannot think you have made it. With these guys in the team, you have got to keep making runs.
ALL OVER: Ahead of the Twenty20 International series, a confident Eoin Morgan had declared that each member of the England side will get a game. They weren't quite able to pull it off, with Craig Overton missing out, but the lesser known faces clearly impressed with Tom Curran and Dawid Malan leading the way.
Morgan dropped himself as England handed debut to Malan. The left-hander smashed a 44-ball 78 to lift the hosts to 181 for 8 before the bowlers collaborated to seal the game by 19 runs and the series 2-1 at the Sophia Gardens in Cardiff. England will be satisfied with the way the series panned out - they were able to test the young guns and managed to seal the series as well after a disappointing defeat in the second game.
AB de Villiers threatened to take the game away from the hosts but he fell to Mason Crane in the 11th over after striking a a 19-ball 35. De Villiers dismissal turned out to be the turning point of the game. The South Africa captain had smashed the legspinner for a boundary and two sixes but tonked the last ball of the over straight to square leg. South Africa, at that stage, were making a comeback in the game after their top three had been kept in check.
South Africa had fallen behind in the chase with just 59 on the board after nine overs. With the asking rate climbing, de Villiers had to inject some momentum and he chose the young Crane. However, despite picking up 18 runs in the over, the scoreboard pressure and an error in judgement meant the right-hander lost his wicket.
South Africa were dealt with another unkind cut when, soon after the de Villiers dismissal, Chris Jordan had David Miller to leave the visitors struggling at 86 for 5.
Earlier, Malan's innings game the England innings impetus in the middle overs before they somewhat lost control of things in the death overs. Asked to bat, Malan walked in after Morne Morkel dismissed Jason Roy early. He walked across to Chris Morris on the second ball he faced and planted the bowlers over the square leg fence.
If there were nerves from the debutant, the clearly weren't hampering his thinking or his mindset. England needed a solid foundation and Malan, with Alex Hales (36), scored 105 for the second wicket to push the hosts in a good position. Malan's onslaught gave Hales the much-needed cushion as the opener struggled to get going for most parts of his innings. His movements were hampered too after he smashed one onto his knee off an inside edge early on in the innings.
For the early part of his innings, it appeared Malan preferred the on side as he continuously walked across to work the ball to the on side. But to his credit, as his innings progressed, he made room to cash in on the short off side boundaries as well.
When Malan fell, England were 127 for 3. The left-hand, trying to clear the long on fielder, failed to pick the wrong 'un from Imran Tahir and presented a simple catch to Dane Paterson. England made their way to 166 for 3 before the slipped and had to settle for a par score.Paterson picked up the key wickets of Jos Buttler (31), Liam Livingstone, David Willey and Sam Billings to dent the hosts in the end overs.
It was an exceptional display of death bowling from Andile Phehlukwayo and Paterson but as it turned out, the Hales-Malan stand had done enough damage.
SA NEED 37 OFF THE LAST OVER.
ALL FALLING APART: Short ball from Jordan, Behardien pulls and is caught at square leg. South Africa 91 for 6.
Hello and welcome to the live blog of the 3rd T20I between England and South Africa in Cardiff. AB de Villiers said before the Taunton game that his team would come out fighting and they sure made good his word in the field. Chris Morris in particular was excellent and it was a more intense and aggressive South Africa than was seen in the first match at the Ageas Bowl in Southampton. With a series win on the line, they will hope to channel that same mentality.
England themselves should not lack motivation given the venue and they may feel slightly hard done by after Jason Roy's dismissal for obstructing the field in the previous match. Although the general consensus - Ben Stokes's Twitter rant aside - is that it was the correct decision to give him out, his wicket started England's collapse and probably cost them the game. If there is any resentment at that decision within the dressing room, they have a chance to put it right in Wales' capital.
Conditions in Cardiff should be far different to the pace and bounce of Taunton and both teams will have to play a vastly different game. The slower surface will probably suit England more with their greater spin resources but they will hope to adapt better than they did during their Champions Trophy semi-final defeat to Pakistan here a couple of weeks ago when a slow, low pitch was partly their undoing. That disappointment will stay with those involved for a while yet but victory here will go some way to easing that pain.
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