Bristol| The English cricket team has been in all sorts of problems lately with their white-ball captain Eoin Morgan retiring and Ben Stokes calling time on his ODI career. The ODI world champions have been jolted by these decisions and it seems that they are having one of the tough phases in rebuilding their team from scratch. The Jos Buttler-led side lost to India by a margin of 2-1 in the T20I series. India's aggressive approach in the T20I series caught the English side off guard and they had no answers to the threats that the men in blue posed towards them. Unable to turn things around, the English side was far from their best in the ODI series against India too and questions were being asked about their inability to bat for fifty overs.
After losing the ODI series to India by a margin of 2-1, the English team was expected to regroup and reset ahead of the South Africa series. To England's dismay, they looked extremely ordinary and clueless against the visitors and lost to South Africa in the first ODI. England did bounce back and leveled the series in the second ODI but couldn't clinch the series as the final ODI was called off due to rain delays.
As a preparation for their T20I World Cup campaign which is scheduled to be played in Australia this year, the English team is taking on South Africa as they look to work and improve on their game plans. When England walked out to bat, not many expected them to score heavily with Jos Buttler departing early on. But it was Jonny Bairstow and his display of brutal hitting which left the visitors scratching their heads. Bairstow is having one dream of an English summer and at the time he seems invincible and has answers to almost everything that is being thrown at him. Bairstow along with Moeen Ali stitched a partnership of 106 runs which propelled England's score to 204 runs. Making most of his form, Bairstow struck a swashbuckling 90 off 53 deliveries at a strike rate of 169.81.
England required quick runs and Jonny Bairstow did the same thing. The England batsman to close the innings on high fell prey to Lungi Ngidi and failed to score, what could be a memorable hundred.
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Teams:
South Africa (Playing XI): Quinton de Kock(w), Reeza Hendricks, Rilee Rossouw, Heinrich Klaasen, David Miller(c), Tristan Stubbs, Andile Phehlukwayo, Kagiso Rabada, Keshav Maharaj, Lungi Ngidi, Tabraiz Shamsi
England (Playing XI): Jos Buttler(w/c), Jason Roy, Dawid Malan, Jonny Bairstow, Moeen Ali, Liam Livingstone, Sam Curran, Chris Jordan, Adil Rashid, Richard Gleeson, Reece Tople
