2 hours ago
7
Key events Show key events only Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature
Tanya Aldred was at Edgbaston yesterday for Blast finals day as Somerset emerged victorious over Hampshire in front of a capacity crowd.
Bad news! The covers are now being dragged back on as the rain starts up again, this time a bit heavier. It’s going to be one of those afternoons I fear.
Good news! The covers are coming off at Trent Bridge though Stuart Broad is the local lad and he is worried about the rain radar. We can do a five overs a side game if it comes to it and Shaun Pollock jokes that South Africa won’t want to bowl twenty overs at England while they are in this blistering form.
The players are warming up on the Trent Bridge outfield, the rain is falling lightly, if steadily. Apparently there will be a toss in five minutes so everyone is obviously keen to get a game started with a break in the weather coming. It looks a bit Biblical later on mind.
Ian Ward, Shaun Pollock and Stuart Broad are in the studio waxing lyrical about Phil Salt and England’s batting in Manchester. Simon Burnton was there for us the other night, getting RSI of the neck as the boundaries were peppered.
England made history, and for the first time more than 300 runs, on an extraordinary night in Manchester as they buried South Africa under a mountain of runs and shredded statistics. Their highest T20 total was turbocharged by a brilliant opening stand of 126 between Phil Salt and Jos Buttler and by their highest individual score, Salt knocking himself off the top of that chart with an unbeaten 141. Within a week and against the same opponents they have set new national records for winning margins in both one-day internationals and now T20s, the final difference here an almost comic 146 runs.
Salt described his evening as “really good fun” but the experience for Shukri Conrad, South Africa’s head coach, was anything but. He described a bowling performance that – having invited England to bat first – “was way off, bereft of ideas” as England were allowed to plunder 30 fours and 18 sixes en route to a score of 304 for two, with nearly twice as many boundaries (48) across the innings as there were dot balls (25).”
Preamble
James Wallace
Hello and welcome to the third T20I between England and South Africa. It’s England’s last home match of a long international summer… but cricket waits for no one and they’ll touch down in Ireland for a short white ball series that begins on Wednesday. Just in case you were worried about having withdrawal symptoms.
Jacob Bethell will captain them for that series but Harry Brook remains at the helm for today’s fixture, if the weather relents and they can get a game on in Notttingham that is.
The radar looks a bit grim currently, which is a shame as the series is tied one apiece after the five over soggy slogathon went the Proteas way in Cardiff and Phil Salt’s record breaking century at Old Trafford levelled things up for England.
I’ll be back shortly to bring you news of the teams and the toss, not to mention that pesky weather. Please do get in touch with your thoughts, theories and ruminations on the universe. We might need them.
