Mumbai, Oct 21: Rampant South Africa left England’s World Cup title defence in absolute shambles here on Saturday, handing the reigning champions their biggest loss in history of ODI cricket by 229 runs in one of the most dominant all-round performances in recent times.
Having amassed the second highest total of 399/7 in this year’s edition – the first also belongs to the Proteas – South African pace battery ran through England’s famed batting line-up with tremendous ease terminating their innings at 170 in 22 overs.
In World Cup history, South Africa’s win over England is now the joint-sixth highest by margin of runs.
For a side which lifted the last two white-ball ICC tournaments, England have hit the nadir in this edition as their woes deepened further across departments. They are now placed ninth in 10-team table.A wrong call at the toss was followed by a poor bowling show, but what left a huge embarrassment to deal with for England was a stunning collapse on a batting-friendly surface here, which saw Jos Buttler’s team rolling over for 170 for nine in 22 overs.If it was not for a ninth-wicket 70-run stand between Mark Wood (43 not out) and Gus Atkinson (35), England’s loss will feature among one of the worst in history of ODI cricket.
For what it is worth, Reece Topley unavailable to bat.The return of their ‘spiritual leader’ Ben Stokes – who did not bowl and managed a mere 5 – also had no impact whatsoever as he played his first game in this World Cup since returning back from retirement.Alongside the catastrophic defeat, Buttler’s call to bowl first in most humid conditions, would also rankle for times to come since England’s recent record of chasing – only three wins in 11 matches since January 2022 – did not back them up enough.Jonny Bairstow (10) was bounced out by Lungi Ngidi (2/26), Joe Root (2) meekly played one to leg slip off Marco Jansen (2/35), who also had Dawid Malan (6) caught behind.Kagiso Rabada (1/35) took a sharp return catch to end Stokes’ stay.The young Gerald Coetzee (3/35) then got into the act to account for Harry Brook (17), Buttler (15) and Adil Rashid (10) to pile further misery on England. (PTI)
