AB de Villiers’ record-breaking knock helps South Africa hammer England
South Africa cruised to a nine-wicket victory in the second and final Twenty20 International clash against England in Johannesburg this afternoon.
The tourists looked to be on course for a big score until they were hampered by yet another batting collapse, while the South African innings included a record-breaking knock from AB de Villiers.
Put into bat by home skipper Faf du Plessis, England lost openers Jason Roy (9) and Alex Hales (16) relatively cheaply.
However, that was followed by a swift 34 from Joe Root and when he fell to the bowling of Imran Tahir, that brought captain Eoin Morgan and Jos Buttler together.
They put on a fourth-wicket stand of 96 runs, carrying England through to 157-3. However, Morgan’s men then proceeded to lose their remaining seven wickets for just 14 runs.
In reply, the Proteas made light work of their 172-run victory target, thanks in part to a fastest ever T20 half-century by a South African from De Villiers.
His wicket was eventually snared by Adil Rashid for 71, which left Hashim Amla (69) and Du Plessis to ease South Africa to the win with 32 balls remaining.
The two nations will meet again in the group stages of next month’s ICC World T20 event in India.
