Twitter Reactions: Rassie van der Dussen's century plays spoilsport in Ben Stokes' ODI swansong

England hosted South Africa for the first ODI at Durham soon after finishing off their long schedule against India. Both the teams were backed by a defeat in their previous games and one had to break the jinx. Rassie van der Dussen and Anrich Nortje guided the Proteas to a composed 62-run victory as the visitors started off their tour on a high note.

Janneman Malan and Quinton de Kock got right to work from the word go, playing their strokes and attempting to utilize the powerplay to the most. A perfectly placed slower delivery by Sam Curran helped the English team get De Kock (19 off 22) off the hook, which brought Van der Dussen out in the middle. It was an important breakthrough for England, but they did not anticipate what was ahead of them.

Malan and Van der Dussen continued to play the game brilliantly. There were hardly a few deliveries where they did not score runs. Their choice of shots, finding the gaps to send the ball towards the fence, and the running between the wickets- everything was well timed. Both of them reached their respective fifties, but Malan (57 off 77) walked back soon and could not capitalize on the momentum thereon.

England’s strategy of deploying a spinner against Aiden Markram backfired as the batter used the opportunity to hit some big runs. He gave equal opportunities to Van der Dussen (134 off 117), who had played a composed innings and was nearing the three-figure mark. He shortly bagged his third ODI century, and Markram’s (77 off 61) half-century followed thereafter.

The 151-run partnership was broken by Liam Livingstone as he picked both the set batters in the 46th over. David Miller (34* off 14) and Heinrich Klaasen (12 off 10) constituted a very strong middle-order, and even towards the end, they kept the scoreboard ticking and bagged a handful of boundaries. The South African lineup showed some brilliant batting display and finished at 333/5, without hitting a single six.

Anrich Nortje wreaks havoc with a four-wicket haul

In response, England got off to a respectable start thanks to Jonny Bairstow and Jason Roy (43 off 62). The openers scored a century stand to set the stage for their side despite surprisingly scoring at a sluggish run rate. Despite Roy’s dismissal at that time, the hosts were still performing fairly well. Andile Phehlukwayo’s injury led skipper Keshav Maharaj to turn out to Markram, a part-timer, who quickly dispatched Bairstow (63 off 71) and Ben Stokes (5 off 11) to get the upper hand.

The middle order was unable to keep up with the asking rate as it kept increasing. In the end, Joe Root (86 off 77) had to do it all on his own since skipper Jos Buttler (12 off 12) and Livingstone (10 off 14) battled to get back into the swing of things while Curran (18 off 18) and Moeen (3 off 4) were unable to put up a show. It was Anrich Nortje who put curtains on England’s innings as he scalped four wickets towards the end and dished out the opposition’s lineup as South Africa took a 1-0 lead.

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