In a postage-stamp ground where bowlers mustered few special deliveries and batsmen sent most of their messages by airmail, there was one particularly memorable arrival. England eventually cruised to victory by 41 runs, but even on a night when Moeen Ali scored England’s fastest half-century in the format and Jonny Bairstow reached 90, the most memorable contribution came from the southpaw – Africa Tristan Stubbs, a 21- year old playing his first international innings.
120 of England’s 234 runs came from sixes, their maximum 20 more than they had ever scored before, or that South Africa had conceded. With the tourists further disheartened by a series of failures in the field, even discounting the one Heinrich Klaasen missed on his flight and let float over his head, Bairstow was dropped three times, his chase looking destined to be abandoned.
But for long spells it was also great fun, with Reeza Hendricks scoring a 28-ball half-century, positively pedestrian in such company, and Stubbs, who instantly found a nice seam of form and kept coming with diamonds, confronting the same number of balls and scoring 72. England seemed to have no way of controlling him, and with the second game of the series coming up in Cardiff on Thursday, there is little time left for them to produce new ideas. “I’m sure we’ll have some plans and talk about him tonight,” Moeen said. “Hopefully that doesn’t happen again this series.”
Four of the first 11 deliveries the debutant faced were sixes and his half-century came off just 19 balls, just three more than Moeen’s. During the time he remained at the crease, South Africa had chances of victory. “During training he showed us what he can do, so we weren’t really surprised,” Lungi Ngidi said of Stubbs’ display. “He’s a very, very confident guy. We’re glad he’s had the opportunity to show the world what he’s capable of.”
But with those present smelling an explosive finish, England’s death bowling proved decisive and after Chris Jordan leaked just four runs from the 18th over and Stubbs fell on the first ball of the next, South Africa’s innings they quickly unleashed.
Tristan Stubbs made an extraordinary first international innings. Photograph: Nathan Stirk/ECB/Getty Images
At the toss, Jos Buttler had called it “the proper start” to his side’s T20 World Cup campaign, and by the time they play a 50-over match, it will be November and this tournament will be over. It was a toss that Buttler lost again – he is now 8-2 down since taking over the captaincy last month, and is on a statistically improbable run of seven successive defeats – and David Miller decided he would be cautious on this one small ground to see just how much carnage their opponents could create before their team had to judge the pace of their own innings.
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The response in this case was abundant. It took a while for England to get going, but when they did it was wild: at one point they scored 81 in just four overs as Bairstow and Moeen hit their stride and their opponents lost the address
Bairstow, rewarded for his phenomenal form this summer with a roar from the crowd as he headed to the crease, rode a wave of form and fortune to reach 90 from 53 before Rilee Rossouw finally held one in the final over. He was completely calm about the injury to his left knee, which was wrapped in ice as soon as the game concluded. But it was Moeen, who finished with 52 off 18, who pushed England’s total beyond South Africa’s reach.
“It’s a good-sized ground for someone like me who’s not a big ball-striker,” Moeen said. “The record means a lot because there are guys in our dressing room who score fast and I can boast of having the fastest 50 in T20s. I’ll go to the dressing room in a minute and give it a big one.”
The first hint of the riches on offer for the batsmen came from Buttler, whose stay at the crease was brief but brutal. He faced just seven balls but managed to amass 22 runs, with two sixes and a couple of fours, before misjudging his attempt to hit another maximum off a slower ball from Ngidi and Miller taking a superb catch in the distance
England’s other debutant had a decidedly contrasting experience, Jason Roy working a 15-ball eight full of stems and hitting errors before getting Ngidi at backward point. At home this summer, Roy averages 17.77 in white-ball cricket and just 9.75 in his four T20 innings, and looks worryingly lacking in confidence. The ease with which he saw so many others scoring probably didn’t help.