Geoffrey Boycott
Ex-England batsman on BBC Test Match Special

"Hales has played three or four beautiful shots and got nothing for it. That's the difference in this pitch. I think England could lose this if they don't play sensibly. They will lose it rather than South Africa win it."

Geoffrey's right - as in the first ODI, South Africa only have four front-line bowlers (Abbott, Rabada, Morkel and Tahir) and will have to find 10 overs from part-timers. So they can afford to just take a couple from Abbott's fourth over, knowing they can tuck in later on.

Geoffrey Boycott
Ex-England batsman on BBC Test Match Special

"Rabada was so excited seeing Hales halfway down the pitch he couldn't get hold of the ball. If they just settle down the game will take its course as lesser bowlers come on and the fielders go out."

What happened there? How was Hales not run out? He plays the ball back to the bowler and charges off like a madman for a run which was never there. As the ball comes to Rabada, Hales is stranded halfway down the wicket, Root hadn't moved. But Rabada can't collect the ball cleanly, it squirms out of his hands like a bar of soap and Hales has time to regain his ground. Whoever was the winner there... it wasn't cricket.

Miličića Mića: Think England might miss Taylor on this type of pitch, might have been worth sacrificing one of the big hitters.

It's almost a reverse of the Duminy dismissal, where the left-hander was given lbw by Cloete to a ball missing leg stump (but SA had already used their review).

Here, it's right-handed Root reviewing a ball that looks to be sliding down leg... it's easily "wickets missing" and Root is reprieved. All the more surprising why he had to consult Alex Hales before asking for the review.

Geoffrey Boycott
Ex-England batsman on BBC Test Match Special

"It only has to clip the stumps once they have given you out."

Big appeal for lbw by Rabada, umpire Cloete raises his finger and after a little deliberation, Joe Root signals for a review...

Simon Smith: This time last year that SA total would have been a daunting challenge. Now it's easy peasy, how times change...

Abboott, still with a slip in, is on the money here from the Park Drive End, bowling nice and straight - knowing he can't give Hales too much width. It helps when you're backed up by your fielders, a smart stop by Rilee Rossouw at short extra cover allows Abbott to join the dots for a maiden over.

Ade: I've always thought of the IPL auctions as very odd. Morris for £1m, form man of world cricket Khawaja unsold, Buttler bought as basically a reserve. Do the people doing the buying actually watch cricket?

A Hales single brings Joe Root on strike for the first time, he's off the mark as he clips his second delivery through square leg and immediately signals he wants two. Good running, given that the ball barely made it out of the fielding circle.

Geoffrey Boycott
Ex-England batsman on BBC Test Match Special

"He played down the wrong line - he played down Bakerloo when it was on Piccadilly. The bowler sent that down like an off-cutter, it gripped on the slow surface. Good bowling."

Hales faces Abbott for the first time, dabbing a quick single. But the bowler offers Roy too much width, and the Surrey right-hander - not too far from his Durban birthplace - glides him through backward point for four. The England fans in PE are soon on their feet again as Roy smears one back past the bowler and the gangly Morne Morkel can't cut it off.

Right-arm paceman Kagiso Rabada was impressive in the Test matches, but his first ball in this ODI series is less than impressive as he bangs in a half-volley which Alex Hales steers for four backward of point. There's a moral victory for the bowler next ball as Hales plays and misses, then the Notts man pushes a quick single to AB de Villiers - rather you than me, Alex - and ABDV effortlessly hits the stumps from mid-off but Hales had made his ground.

Geoffrey Boycott
Ex-England batsman on BBC Test Match Special

"The way England's two openers play is good for most surfaces. But here they will have to play with a little bit of care and attention. It can't be all crash, bang, wallop."

Roy uses up another life - an unconvincing edge with no footwork flies through where third or fourth slip would have been, and away to the boundary. England up and running.

Eric Hoff: Is it too late to teach Jordan to keep wicket?