Twitter Reactions: England beat South Africa in the series opener

Moeen Ali’s 3/47 and Steve Finn’s 4/42 helped England wrap up the South African inning in the morning session of the fifth day to win the first Test of the Basil D’ Olivera trophy by 241 runs.

England bowled only 24 overs in the morning session of the last day and snapped up the remaining six wickets to seal the match. AB de Villiers, South Africa’s last realistic hope of saving the Test was dismissed in the very first over of the day by Moeen Ali. Soon, it did not take very long for the English bowlers to dismiss the rest of the Proteas batsman. South Africa were eventually all out for 174 with JP Duminy standing not out at 26.

England had set the tone for the match quite early by picking up four wickets on day four after setting a target of 416 to chase. The match looked well set for a good battle on the fifth day when Faf du Plessis and AB de Villiers were batting defensively in the last session of the fifth day but a late surprise delivery from Finn got Faf and the match slid hugely into England’s favor.

Such straightforward result was not at all expected but England put their best performance and outplayed South Africa totally. This loss was South Africa’s third worst loss in terms of runs at home since readmission to Test cricket. SA definitely has a lot of things to mend before they go into the second Test. The inclusion of Quinton de Kock and Chris Morris should be a refreshing change for them but the real problem lies in the middle order.

Here are the best Tweets and Twitter Reaction on England’s memorable win: