Twitter Reactions: Bairstow, Hales take England to crushing win over Proteas in T20I opener

After a rather disappointing end at different levels, team South Africa and England locked horns in the first T20I of the 3-match series. The stage was set at the Rose Bowl, Southampton for the first game. Having lost the ODI series, South Africa desperately needed to get their act together in the shortest format. On the other hand, England only aimed at continuing their good run in the home conditions.

Proteas skipper Faf du Plessis had flown back home expecting his first child. It was AB de Villiers who walked out for the toss in his absence. He won the toss and opted to bat first. They had a horror start with JJ Smuts being dismissed on the very first ball of the innings by David Willey. Reeza Hendricks, the other opener, perished on 3 in the very next over with Mark Wood being the beneficiary.

Wood scalped his second when he dismissed David Miller on 9. At 32/3, things looked grim for the visitors and team England looked firm on top with the fans backing them. Skipper AB de Villiers and Farhaan Behardien then joined hands to do the task of rebuilding. Scoring runs was definitely not easy on the day as even a batsman of AB’s caliber found it tough to get his feet going. Both batsmen nurdled around for singles as the big shots were hard to come by.

The English bowlers stuck to tight lines to make things tougher for South Africa. AB de Villiers and Farhaan Behardien added an unbeaten 110 run stand in the match to see South Africa finished with 142/3 in their 20 overs. They failed to get the kind of final flourish they needed despite both batsmen scoring their individual fifties. AB remained unbeaten on 65 and Behardien scored an unbeaten 64.

In the run chase, Jason Roy gave a flying start to England with 14-ball 28 to see 59 runs added in the powerplay. Jonny Bairstow joined Alex Hales in the run chase after Roy’s departure and the two took absolute toll on the South African bowling. Jonny Bairstow remained unbeaten on 60 off 35 balls and Alex Hales stood not out on 47 off 38 balls as England crushed South Africa by 9 wickets to take 1-0 lead in the series.

Here is how the Twitterati reacted to the game: