South Africa 333 for 5 (van der Dussen 133, Livingstone 2-29) beat England 271 (Root 86, Nortje 4-53) by 62 runs
England farewelled Ben Stokes from ODI cricket with defeat in the first of their three-match series against South Africa on the hottest day in the country since records began. Temperatures topped 40 degrees and there were serious concerns around player and fan safety but the match was completed without major incidents, though there were reports of supporters struggling in the heat.
Rassie van der Dussen was the coolest man on the park and scored his third ODI century, a career-best 134, as South Africa posted their highest ODI score in England and the second-highest at Chester-le-Street. That asked England to complete their sixth-highest successful run-chase but South Africa's spinners, in particular, combined discipline and attack to seal a statement win. Keshav Maharaj, Tabraiz Shamsi and Aiden Markram bowled 15 overs and took five for 120 between them.
Though this series does not count for World Cup Super League points, it is the start of an important eight months for South Africa which includes tours to England and Australia and the T20 World Cup. They began it without regular white-ball captain Temba Bavuma, who injured his elbow ahead of this trip, but Maharaj's decision-making was flawless from the moment he won the toss and chose to shield his fielders from the afternoon sun.
South Africa made England's attack toil on a benign pitch, and without the services of debutant Matthew Potts for the bulk of their innings. Potts bowled four overs upfront but left the field after feeling adverse effects from the heat but returned to bat at No.11. The rest of the quicks delivered mostly short spells - aside from Sam Curran's five-over spell at the start - with the spinners Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid doing the longer slogs.
None of them were entirely threatening against South Africa's line-up, who seemed to labour at times, but ended up with more than enough. South Africa did not hit a single six but relied on the accumulating skills of Janneman Malan, who scored his fourth fifty in the format and shared in a 109-run second-wicket stand with van der Dussen, a paragon of patience. Being no master-blaster, van der Dussen ran 57 singles, 15 twos and two threes and batted for three minutes short of three hours to put together a masterful hundred and set up a big win. Van der Dussen also shared in a record third-wicket stand of 151 for South Africa against England with Markram, who scored his fifth 50.
While there did not seem to be many fireworks in the South African innings, they took on the spinners, used the reverse-sweep to good effect, and rode out the periods of pressure. When Malan was dismissed, England put the brakes on and South Africa only scored 31 runs in the next six overs, but that allowed Markram to settle. Once he did, he targeted the sixth bowling option and scored 21 runs off 15 balls he faced from Liam Livingstone.
Van der Dussen's century came off 90 balls and is his third hundred in 14 innings since April last year, a period in which he has averaged 84.77. He is only the third South African batter to score an ODI century against England in England. He took South Africa into the last five overs and they may have had their eyes on 350-plus but England took three wickets in that period to leave South Africa on 333 for 5.
In response, England made their way through a relatively sedate Powerplay - though Jason Roy hit the first six of the match when he slog-swept Maharaj into the stands - which finished on 47 without loss. South Africa would have been satisfied with the opening phase of their defence if Jonny Bairstow was not dropped at the end of the 10th over. He was on 18 and chipped Lungi Ngidi to Miller at mid-off, who jumped but could not hold on.
The drop proved reasonably costly as Bairstow and Roy went on to post their 14th century stand and Bairstow scored his 15th ODI half-century, but not before South Africa also suffered a loss of personnel. When Bairstow punched Anrich Nortje down the ground, Andile Phehlukwayo and Maharaj tried to cut it off from mid-off and mid-on respectively and collided into each other. Replays showed Maharaj's shoulder hit Phehlukwayo on the chin. He left the field nursing a cut and was ruled out of the match with a suspected concussion eight overs later.
By the time Dwaine Pretorius was confirmed as his replacement eight overs later, the match situation had changed considerably. Bairstow reached fifty, Roy lofted Maharaj to long-on and was caught by Miller, Ngidi dropped Bairstow on 51 o and Markram ensured the drop was not too expensive when he hit Bairstow flush on the knee roll to have him out lbw.
Bairstow's dismissal brought Stokes to the middle in his last ODI innings to a standing ovation from his Riverside home crowd. He faced 11 balls, scored five singles and then tried to reverse-sweep a Markram delivery and was struck on the front pad in line with middle stump. Stokes thought about reviewing but decided not to and as he turned to leave, Markram paused his celebrations to say goodbye. England still needed 192 runs off 22 overs.
With the long line-up, England would not have considered themselves out of it until Buttler inside-edged onto his pad to give Shamsi a return catch and Livingstone dragged Ngidi onto his stumps. Joe Root stood batter alone for most of the rest of the innings and his 53-run seventh-wicket stand with Curran just about kept things interesting before he deflected a Nortje back-of-a-length delivery onto his stumps to all but end the contest. Nortje took two more in the over and one at the end to finish with a four-for and bowl England out inside 47 overs.
