De Villiers guides Proteas to T20I series win

JOHANNESBURG: A B de Villiers plundered 71 runs off 29 balls to lead South Africa to a nine-wicket victory over England and wrap up a 2-0 series win in the second Twenty20 International at the Wanderers on Sunday.

The tourists were bowled out for 171 in their last over and South Africa reached 172 with 32 balls to spare, wrapping up a comfortable win that stood in contrast to their narrow victory in Friday’s first encounter in Cape Town.

De Villiers broke his own record for the fastest half-century by a South African in a T20 international, trimming the mark from 23 to 21 balls.

Together with Hashim Amla, he enjoyed a first-wicket partnership of 125 to effectively seal victory before he was caught out on the boundary.

Amla finished unbeaten on 69.

England were their own worst enemies when Eoin Morgan ran out in-form batsman Alex Hales with the score on 61, but a 96-run partnership between the England captain and Jos Buttler had guided the tourists to 157-3 in the 17th over.

They fell apart, however, when they then lost their last seven wickets for just 14 runs to leave South Africa with a modest target to chase at a ground where high scoring is the norm.

Sunday’s match ended England’s 10-week tour where they won the four-match test series 2-1 but surrendered a 2-0 lead in the One-day International series to lose 3-2, before being beaten in both T20 internationals.

Score Board

South Africa won toss

England

J J Roy b Rabada      9

A D Hales run out     16

J E Root c Miller b Imran      34

*E J G Morgan run out         38

†J C Buttler c du Plessis b Abbott    54

B A Stokes c & b Morris       1

S W Billings c Amla b Abbott 5

M M Ali c Duminy b Morris    1

C J Jordan c du Plessis b Abbott      1

A U Rashid b Rabada 2

R J W Topley not out 1

Extras (lb 3, w 6)     9

Total (all out; 19.4 overs)    171

Fall: 1-10, 2-60, 3-61, 4-157, 5-157, 6-158, 7-160, 8-166, 9-166, 10-171

Bowling: Rabada 3.4-0-28-2 (2w); Abbott 4-0-26-3; Morris 4-0-33-2 (4w); Wiese 3-0-40-0; Imran 4-0-25-1; Duminy 1-0-16-0

South Africa

†A B de Villiers c Root b Rashid       71

H M Amla not out      69

*F du Plessis not out 22

Extras (b 2, lb 3, w 5)         10

Total (1 wicket; 14.4 overs) 172

Did not bat: J P Duminy, R R Rossouw, D A Miller, D Wiese, C H Morris, K J Abbott, K Rabada, Imran Tahir

Fall: 1-125

Bowling: Topley 2-0-32-0 (3w); Stokes 3-0-32-0; Jordan 2.4-0-48-0 (2w); Rashid 4-0-30-1; Ali 3-0-25-0

Result: South Africa won by 9 wickets

Series: South Africa won the 2-match series 2-0

Man of the Match: A B de Villiers (SA)

Man of the Series: Imran Tahir (SA)

Umpires: J D Cloete and A T Holdstock. TV umpire: S George. Match referee: A J Pycroft (Zimbabwe)