11:58





11:50

Wicket! De Cook C Morgan B Jordan 30 (South Africa 83-2)





11:48





11:45





11:43





11:38





11:33

Updated





11:29

Updated





11:22





11:17





11:13





11:09

Wicket! Bafuma C Butler BS Curran 5 (South Africa 6-1)

Updated





11:01





10:56





10:44





10:40





10:38





10:35





10:25





10:12

Preamble

South Africa, welcome to bubble cricket. Yes, it’s true, this is the first time that proteas have appeared Which Figure Since Covid stopped cricket in its tracks about eight and a half months ago. By contrast, their English opponents pioneered the centers of biosecurity during the summer, playing almost without interruption in Manchester and Southampton between the beginning of July and the end of September.

But while the recent history of the two sides may differ when the first three types of rubber appear, the goal is one: to succeed in the upcoming T20 World Cup, set to take place in India 11 months from now. In the case of the Eoin Morgan men, this tournament would provide the opportunity to become the double white ball world champions.

From Morgan’s perspective, what he learned in the series will help define the selection process for this big event. On their last outing in their shortest form against the Australians at the end of their summer, they wrapped up the series in straight sets before losing their third and final rubber. This time, they are picking from a strong team with a majority of eight from the team that played in the ODI win at Lords last July who will likely appear in XI today.

As for the Quinton de Cook hosts, they were in good shape with white ball before the Covid hit, but how important that is now months later is still unclear. As we saw at the ODI between Australia and India earlier today in Sydney, circular rust is a very real thing when the difference returns from long breaks. The good news is that Kagiso Rabada is coming out of the back of this awesome IPL.

We are about 20 minutes away from the throwing ball in Newlands, where no spectators will be present, I regret reporting. But that’s okay – we’ll have fun. Drop me a line in the usual way or He launched a tweet for me. I look forward to it.