15:59
Dead rubber? Yes and no
The series may be decided, but it turns out there is something riding on this game. If England win, they will go to No.1 in the world T20 rankings, knocking Australia off their pedestal. Which always feels good.
15:51
A tweet!
Cricket wouldn’t be cricket without a word from Gary Naylor. “The absence of fans,” he reckons, “has affected the aesthetics of sports viewing. Cycling’s parcours have been laid bare and beautiful, but cricket has gone both ways. Stadiums have looked even more soulless but grounds have looked lovelier than ever. Now to get rid of the adverts.” Good luck with that.
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15:44
Those teams in full
South Africa 1 Quentin de Kock (capt, wkt), 2 Temba Bavuma, 3 Faf du Plessis, 4 Rassie van der Dussen, 5 Pite van Biljon, 6 Reeza Hendricks, 7 George Linde, 8 Anrich Nortje, 9 Lungi Ngidi, 10 Lutho Sipamla, 11 Tabraiz Shamsi.
England 1 Jason Roy, 2 Jos Buttler (wkt), 3 Dawid Malan, 4 Jonny Bairstow, 5 Ben Stokes, 6 Eoin Morgan (capt), 7 Sam Curran, 8 Chris Jordan, 9 Tom Curran, 10 Jofra Archer, 11 Adil Rashid.
15:40
Rabada out, Sipamla in
Kagiso Rabada isn’t fit, which is a blow for South Africa and a shame for fans of fast bowling. The man who has to fill his shoes is Lutho Sipamla.
15:37
England unchanged
Eoin Morgan resists the temptation to tinker, which is tough on Moeen Ali and Mark Wood. Morgan says he would have batted first too.
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15:35
Toss: SA win and bat first
Surprising choice – perhaps de Kock feels that the surface, which is the same one that was used the other day, will get even slower as the evening goes on.
12:35
Preamble: Six Gun Grilling
Afternoon everyone and welcome to the final episode in an entertaining mini-series. If you prefer your sport to come without too much tension, you’re in the right place: the series is already won and dusted. England’s white-ball know-how, freshly sharpened in the IPL, has proved too much for a South African side who have done well to get on the field at all given the shenanigans in their boardroom.
Today’s match, like the first, takes place in Cape Town, at the famous old ground now known as Six Gun Grill Newlands. If not exactly dignified, the name is apt in a way. England have brought six gun batsmen, as the players like to say, and each game so far has been decided by one of them – Jonny Bairstow with an explosive 86 not out off 48 balls, then Dawid Malan with a more measured 55 off 40. Today Eoin Morgan will be hoping the star turn is Jason Roy, who has scraped only 63 runs in eight international innings since lockdown. Even his strike rate has gone to pieces – it’s 74, rather than his usual 120-odd – though that will surely change if he can stick around long enough to get his eye in.
The South Africans have a more fundamental aim: to avoid a whitewash. For Quentin de Kock, any old win will do to build some belief before the 50-over series that follows on Friday. See you just after 3.30pm GMT for the toss and the teams.
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