After a doleful week encompassing two chastening defeats, England needed to finish this ODI series strongly, if only to show that their white-ball cricket is not quite as flawed as some suggest, but even they must have been surprised at this sure-footed response. This was a performance that would have stood out even in the glory days of the Eoin Morgan era, when opponents were routinely crushed underfoot.
The contrast was almost laughable with the first two games of the series, when the highest individual score was 61 and the new-ball bowlers went wicketless in the first 13 overs. Now on the largest playing area in the country, England piled up 414 for five — their fifth-highest ODI total and their highest at home since 2018 — before reducing South Africa to the rubble of 24 for six in the powerplay. Crisis, what crisis?
The eventual margin of victory of 342 runs was the largest in all of men’s ODI cricket, and exactly 100 more than England’s previous best by runs, set at Trent Bridge seven years ago.
There were a number of exceptional contributions. Joe Root played immaculately for yet another finely crafted century, containing 50 singles but still coming off only 95 balls. In a way, this was only to be expected, because Root is a master of his art.
More striking was what Jacob Bethell and Jofra Archer did. The game will be remembered most for Bethell ending his long wait for a maiden century at professional level, four years after making his Warwickshire first-team debut. Any hundred must feel good, and especially a groundbreaking one such as this, but it was also a beautiful innings — not chanceless, but full of the kinds of strokes that have excited Bethell-watchers for some time.
Archer’s opening spell was his best of the summer and suggested he is taking his game up through the gears at just the right time, with an Ashes tour looming.
The situation was in his favour, with a huge score on the board and the skies darkening. Batting was hard work, with Archer bearing down from one end and Brydon Carse, himself finding good rhythm, at the other. Archer regularly hit 90mph and got the ball to lift nastily, making survival the priority.
Bethell breathes a sigh of relief after Burger drops a simple catch at mid-on
ANDREW COULDRIDGE/REUTERS
If Aiden Markram gifted his wicket chasing a loosener, and Wiaan Mulder top-edged a cross-batted shot, the mood changed as Archer and Carse sensed blood. Ryan Rickelton and Matthew Breetzke were expertly removed — Breetzke for his first failure in six ODIs — before Dewald Brevis was hit in the abdomen and Tristan Stubbs was left ashen-faced from a blow to the chest.
Neither batsmen lasted much longer. Stubbs fended a short ball to second slip and Brevis poked indeterminately to third. Keshav Maharaj may have finished as player of the series, but he left with a bruised thumb. At one point Archer’s figures read 5-3-5-4.
With Temba Bavuma having picked up a calf injury and unable to bat, South Africa’s hopes of getting close to England’s score were always slim, but now they were dead.
Given they held an unassailable 2-0 lead in the series, they had less to play for than England, and this revealed itself in small details. They were slow with their overs, costing them a fielder in the ring at the end, and, under severe pressure, conceded 19 wides.
Least excusable were the dropped catches. Breetzke put down Jamie Smith at cover 23 runs into a typically hard-hit 62 from 48 balls; you may have seen your granny drop an easier catch in the garden, but only if she’d been on the sherry. More expensively, Nandre Burger at mid-on misjudged a low flat pull from Bethell when he was 44.
Archer took four wickets with the new ball to set England on their way to victory
DAVE VOKES/SHUTTERSTOCK
After England were routed in the first game at Headingley, they moved Bethell up to No4 to make use of his skill against spin and get a left-hander into the engine room of the batting. It has worked a treat, giving him the chance to play the longer innings he craved. He made 58 off 40 balls at Lord’s and here struck 110 off 82, coming in with a platform laid by Smith and Ben Duckett, whose 31 was only his second score in excess of 20 since the Tests, but with more than 33 overs still to bowl. Both Duckett and Smith will now be rested.
Bethell and Root put 24 of these overs to good use in a stand of 182 during which Root ticked over in Bethell’s wake. South Africa had no answers to their inventiveness, power and quick running (in fact, Root’s call for a sharp single almost cost Bethell his wicket on 91, but the throw went wide).
Please enable cookies and other technologies to view this content. You can update your cookies preferences any time using privacy manager.
Enable cookiesAllow cookies once
Bethell reached three figures with a drive past a diving extra-cover fielder. He gave a relieved smile and Root ran up and hugged him. There is a connection here: their fathers, Graham and Matt, used to play together for Sheffield Collegiate, but they may be part of a line of class England middle-order batsmen.
Root may have scored his 58th international century and Bethell only his first, but there will be plenty more where this came from for the youngster. At 21 years 319 days, he became the second-youngest England batsman to score an ODI hundred behind David Gower, and only the seventh to score a century for England before the age of 22 in any format. Root was six months older when he got his first century.
There were still ten overs to go and Bethell looked to put on the afterburners, only to perish after hitting two more boundaries.
Harry Brook was carelessly run out second ball but Jos Buttler was soon into his stride and would stay until the end to secure a 27-ball fifty and make sure England powered past 400. In the 46th over, Root brought up his own century but although he departed to his next ball, Buttler and Will Jacks plundered 42 from the last three overs. Root also went past 1,000 international runs for the English summer for the fifth time.
Root hit six fours on the way to his 19th career ODI century off only 95 balls
GRAHAM HUNT/PROSPORTS/SHUTTERSTOCK
Bethell’s runs have bolstered his standing after a frustrating summer in red-ball cricket. He is sure to go to Australia as first reserve, and expects no less.
“It [the hundred] feels good,” he said. “I wouldn’t say it’s a relief, I don’t listen to what people say. I wanted it for myself and the team. It’s pretty tough to be consistent and score fast at the same time.
“[The Ashes] is obviously nearing. I’m hoping to be in the squad, and if I’m in it’s only one thing that has to happen in terms of an injury and I’m in [the XI]. I’ve got to be ready to perform. I don’t know if these runs mean anything, but I don’t think they hurt.”
This may have been a dead-rubber contest, but just a tenth win in their past 30 contests was welcome for England in any circumstances, and certainly such an emphatic one as this.