SOUTH AFRICA TOUR OF ENGLAND, 2025
Phil Salt hit 15 fours and 8 sixes in his 60-ball 141* © Getty
England became the first team to breach 300 against a full-member team in T20Is with a score of 304/2 against South Africa in the second T20I at Old Trafford in Manchester. On a night of terrific ball-striking, Phil Salt led the charge with 141 off 60 balls – the highest individual score by an English batter in T20Is – while Jos Buttler 30-ball blitzkrieg of 83 began the onslaught early on in the innings. In reply, the visitors were bowled out for 158 as the hosts completed a comfortable win by 146 runs.
England made their intentions clear from the first ball as Salt sliced one over backward point for four. He laid into Marco Jansen in the opening over, following it up with two more boundaries and a six. Buttler was 7 off 6 after Kagiso Rabada’s first over but then unleashed carnage. He greeted Lizaad Williams with consecutive sixes and closed out the over with two fours before continuing the mayhem against Bjorn Fortuin in another expensive over. Buttler went 6, 4, 4, 4 in Rabada’s second over as the batter raced past 50 in 18 balls. A maximum before the end of the PowerPlay saw England reach 100 in 5.5 overs – the second fastest in T20Is against a full-member team.
Buttler was in beast mode as he nailed consecutive sixes off Fortuin before holing out on the onside. Buttler had scored 76 runs off the last 23 balls he faced. Salt continued where Buttler had left off and brought up his 50 in 19 balls. Four boundaries in the 10th over saw England reach 166. With options thinning for Aiden Markram, he took the onus upon himself but conceded 19 in the over. Rabada innocuously overstepped twice in his third over, conceding 23 runs, as Salt swatted a free hit on 99 to bring up the fastest T20I century by an England batter – off 39 balls.
Fortuin sent back Jacob Bethell (26 off 14) as the 14th and 15th over yielded only 14 runs for the hosts. But three boundaries in the following over meant England were back on track for 300. Williams’s miserable night continued as Harry Brook lined him up while Salt clobbered Jansen to the stands in the 19th over twice. With 16 shy of 300 in the last over, Brook and Salt hit a four and a six while Rabada overstepped twice again to concede 20 runs.
With a gargantuan task ahead of them, the visitors didn’t go down without a fight as Markram and Ryan Rickelton brought up a 50-run opening stand in 3.4 overs. Markram scored 22 off Luke Wood’s over while the southpaw went 4, 6, 6 against Jofra Archer before Liam Dawson pulled off a stunner to end the partnership. Archer struck twice at the end of the over to also see the back of Lhuan-dre Pretorius.
The South African innings continued to derail as Dewald Brevis fell four balls later to Sam Curran. Markram’s counter-attack came to an end as he sliced one to long off after an entertaining 41. Donovan Ferreira smashed 20 off Adil Rashid’s second over in a display of raw hitting power. But Curran removed his Oval Invincibles counterpart as wickets continued to fall for the visitors. They continued to slip with Jansen and Tristan Stubbs departing soon after to leave them seven down. Fortuin entertained briefly with a 16-ball 32 before Jacks scalped him and Kwena Maphaka off successive deliveries. Dawson claimed the final wicket as England completed their biggest ever victory in T20Is to square the series 1-1.
Brief Scores: England 304/2 in 20 overs (Phil Salt 141*, Jos Buttler 83; Bjorn Fortuin 2-52) beat South Africa 158 in 16.1 overs (Aiden Markram 41, Bjorn Fortuin 32; Jofra Archer 3-25, Sam Curran 2-11) by 146 runs
© Cricbuzz
