England v South Africa, 2017: 2nd T20I – Statistical Highlights

Taunton, which hosted its first International match after 18 years and an International game involving England after 34 years didn’t get the desired result watching their team win but they witnessed one of the greatest T20 games where the South Africans pulled things back to level the series.

South Africans posted 174/8 in their 20 overs with contributions from AB de Villiers, JJ Smuts and Farhaan Behardien. England seemed to be cruising towards a series win before Jason Roy was adjudged out obstructing the field and the new batsmen failed to get going as the Saffers pulled off a win by a 3-run margin.

Here we look at all the stats and records created during the game.

1 – Jason Roy became the first player to be given out “obstructing the field” in T20I format. He is the 8th player in the International Cricket and the 8th in Twenty20 cricket to be dismissed obstructing the field.

3 – Margin of runs by which England lost this game; their joint 2nd smallest losing margin in T20Is. They lost by 2 runs vs Sri Lanka last years while South Africa defeated them by 3 runs in World T20 game in 2014.

3/33 – Tom Curran’s bowling figures in this game; he is only the 6th player to take 3 wickets on their T20I debut for England.

7 – Number of 30+ scores for AB de Villiers with a strike rate more than 200 in T20I cricket; the most by any player. Yuvraj Singh has 6 such scores in this format.

10 – Taunton’s Country Ground is the 10th England venue to host a T20I game. Only India (17) has more venues that have hosted a T20I match.

44 – Number of matches England have lost in the T20I format; the joint-most number of losses for any team in this format. Pakistan and Bangladesh have also lost 44 T20Is.

174/8 – South Africa’s total in this game; their highest in T20Is where no individual fifty was recorded. They had two scores of 170 previously which didn’t include a fifty.

230 – AB de Villiers’ strike-rate in this game; the 5th highest for a South African player in a T20I inning. (Min: 30 runs scored) The top 4 scores for South Africa are in the name of AB de Villiers.

1999 – Last time Taunton hosted an International game was way back in 1999. The last International match at the venue was between India and Sri Lanka in 1999 World Cup.

2014 – Last time before this game, Morne Morkel batted in top 9 in an International game was way back in 2014 World T20.