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<\/p>\nAfter 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.<\/p>\n
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 \u2014 their fifth-highest ODI total and their highest at home since 2018 \u2014 before reducing South Africa to the rubble of 24 for six in the powerplay. Crisis, what crisis?<\/p>\n
The eventual margin of victory of 342 runs was the largest in all of men\u2019s ODI cricket, and exactly 100 more than England\u2019s previous best by runs, set at Trent Bridge seven years ago. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
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 \u2014 not chanceless, but full of the kinds of strokes that have excited Bethell-watchers for some time. <\/p>\n
Archer\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
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Bethell breathes a sigh of relief after Burger drops a simple catch at mid-on<\/p>\n
ANDREW COULDRIDGE\/REUTERS<\/p>\n
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 \u2014 Breetzke for his first failure in six ODIs \u2014 before Dewald Brevis was hit in the abdomen and Tristan Stubbs was left ashen-faced from a blow to the chest. <\/p>\n
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\u2019s figures read 5-3-5-4.<\/p>\n
With Temba Bavuma having picked up a calf injury and unable to bat, South Africa\u2019s hopes of getting close to England\u2019s score were always slim, but now they were dead. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
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\u2019d been on the sherry. More expensively, Nandre Burger at mid-on misjudged a low flat pull from Bethell when he was 44. <\/p>\n
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Archer took four wickets with the new ball to set England on their way to victory<\/p>\n
DAVE VOKES\/SHUTTERSTOCK<\/p>\n
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\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n
Bethell and Root put 24 of these overs to good use in a stand of 182 during which Root ticked over in Bethell\u2019s wake. South Africa had no answers to their inventiveness, power and quick running (in fact, Root\u2019s call for a sharp single almost cost Bethell his wicket on 91, but the throw went wide). <\/p>\n
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