South Africa v England: first men's Twenty20 international – live!

7th over: South Africa 63-1 (de Kock 26 du Plessis 32) Adil Rashid now, the leggie starting in his 50th T20 International as the field spreads. Six singles here – a result both teams would take, Rashid landing both his stock delivery and wrong’un.

6th over: South Africa 57-1 (de Kock 23, du Plessis 29) It’s de Kock’s turn, starting the final over of the power play by thumping Sam Curran dead straight, nearly taking out du Plessis at the non-strikers’ end! You get four for that, Quinton. But sure enough, the left-armer bounces back, conceding only three further singles.

5th over: South Africa 50-1 (de Kock 17, du Plessis 28) Very good batting from du Plessis, picking up the length of Curran’s off-cutter and plonking him over the rope at long-on and into the building site! And he goes again next up, checking an imposing drive right over the bowler’s head this time, earning four more. And SIX MORE over midwicket! As Nasser notes, he was waiting on the back foot for something shorter and something shorter he receives, pulling with real authority. So, that 16 from three balls to start the over. Two more out to extra cover, timing a low full toss. Will he go large again? He tries, but despite timing the socks of another slap, he has to settle for another two. Last ball… another four! Much as it was to begin, he creams Curran past midwicket making 24 off the over and taking South Africa to 50 in five overs in the process. That’ll do nicely.

4th over: South Africa 26-1 (de Kock 17, du Plessis 4) Archer again, this time with a second slip, but instead of an edge de Kock is depositing Archer over square leg and waaay over the rope for SIX. The first of the game; superb timing on that flick. And he’s not done yet for the over, clipping straighter this time along the turf for four. As Athers points out on telly, from two slips to no slips in the space of an over.

Yep, the end of that game was a joke. A friend of mine reported back that they had to turn the PA system off at the SCG with quarter of an hour to go when they went beyond the 11pm local curfew. They were lucky they lights weren’t turned off!

3rd over: South Africa 12-1 (de Kock 4, du Plessis 3) Tom Curran replaces his little brother and starts off very tidily with three dots from his first four balls, including a mix-up where de Kock had to dive back at the non-strikers’ end to ensure that he’d be safe in the event of a direct hit. “This is a slow surface,” declares Mark Nicholas on TV after Curran the Elder gets another to stick in the pitch. This might be the main reason both sides elected to leave out their quickest bowlers here.

“Hi Adam.” ‘Allo, John Ryan. “What would you say South Africa need to make this game competitive? This pitch is usually high scoring, and with England’s line-up I was thinking 170ish.” At least, I reckon. This is a very strong England team.

2nd over: South Africa 9-1 (de Kock 2, du Plessis 2) Archer finds de Kock’s outside edge with his first delivery but no secons slip! And going through, as they say, at a very catchable height. du Plessis is away with a couple into the gap at midwicket. He may no longer be the captain, and his future remains unclear, but for the time being he soldiers on. It’s a looovely late afternoon there in Cape Town, what a joy.

Bavuma tries to ramp the final ball of the first over but only succeeds in getting a little feather through to the gloves of Buttler! That’s not a pretty way to go. Earlier in the set, he was off the mark off the outside edge down to the rope, de Kock opening his account with a single to deep point. But it’s advantage England right away with Archer to take up the attack from the other end.

1st over: South Africa 6-1 ( de Kock 1)

The players are on the field. It’s the leadership duo of de Kock and Bavuma opening for South Africa with Sam Curran taking the new ball for England. PLAY!

A fair bit of attention around the fact that Anrich Nortje hasn’t been picked. Perhaps a niggle? I’m sure Ali Martin, at the ground for the paper, will get to the bottom of it. Indeed, I’ll send him a message. Mark Wood, England’s quickest, is also missing out in favour of the Curran brothers. I’m sure it’ll bounce around a fair bit at the selection table over these three games in an effort to play everyone.

“Hi, Adam. Nice to have the OBO for company again.” Great to hear from you, Smylers. “Is this a record for the shortest gap between two separate tours to the same opponents? England last played a 20-over match in SA on February 16th, and presumably weren’t planning on returning so swiftly. Have any other teams made two tours to one place in a calendar year before?”

Without looking at it, I’d be surprised if Australia and India haven’t found a way to do so in a shorter gap over the last decade. You’re right, it looks odd. But I suppose the logic is that they have to be there for three Super League ODIs, so why not pop a few T20s in there too given the World Cup is next year. Makes sense.

Ian Ward made a good point on Sky, that the last time these sides played a T20 series, in February, “it was epic.” That’s the word for it. I was on the OBO for the first, where South Africa won by a solitary run – the best T20I I’ve seen. And the second, well, I had to pass the baton to Tim de Lisle as my daughter was born that morning! But the margin there was two runs, another high-scoring thriller.

Archer and Stokes. This is the first time, would you believe, that they have turned out in the same XI for England in the T20 format. Of course, they were teammates in the IPL where Archer walked away with the player of the tournament gong.

Quinton de Kock on his best XI ahead of the next World Cup: “To be honest, we have got to give guys a couple of opportunities and see how things go.” There’s a bit of a contrast here: England feel pretty set on their core, the hosts a bit less so.

South Africa: Temba Bavuma, Quinton de Kock (wk & c), Faf du Plessis, Rassie van der Dussen, Heinrich Klaasen, Pite van Biljon, George Linde, Beuran Hendricks, Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi, Tabraiz Shamsi.

England: Jos Buttler (wk), Jason Roy, Dawid Malan, Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes, Eoin Morgan (c), Sam Curran, Tom Curran, Jofra Archer, Chris Jordan, Adil Rashid.

Morgan on his decision. “The wicket looks very good, our preparation has been good, but the slight advantage here is going to be chasing down (a total).”

I’ve popped on the telly, and before the main event between South Africa and England they are showing a live game from a new T20 comp, the Lanka Premier League. And guess what? Shahid Afridi, at age 45, is one of the captains! Of course, this means it gives him the chance to retire again. Be still my beating heart.