Summary

  • England win with four balls to spare

  • Bairstow 86* off 48 balls

  • Stokes 37 (27), debutant Linde 2-20

  • Bairstow & Stokes add 85 from 34-3

  • SA 179-6: Du Plessis 58 (40)

  • Van der Dussen 37, S Curran 3-28

  • 1st T20, Cape Town; three-match series

  • South Africa's first game since March

Live Reporting

Callum Matthews and Stephan Shemilt

  1. Eng 9-1

    Target 180

    Crunched. Hendricks drifts into Malan's pads and the left-hander whips it wide of mid-on for four. Wristy.

  2. How's stat?!

    Andy Zaltzman
    Test Match Special statistician

    That is Roy's fifth duck opening in international T20s (36 innings), the most by an England player. Alex Hales has four ducks in 55 innings as an opener.

  3. Eng 3-1

    Target 180

    What are Egyptian geese doing in South Africa? George Linde is off, the left-arm pace of Beuran Hendricks on.

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    Sonia Twigg: I think the birds in Cape Town are better than the pigeons at the Oval.

    Egyptian geeseGetty Images

  5. Eng 3-1

    Target 180

    Malan is playing some flowing drives, Goweresque, but straight at fielders. Only three off the first two. England are basically chasing this total in 18 overs.

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    Another failure... Is it time to give Jason Roy an extended break?? He consistently fails and with Buttler, Malan, Bairstow, Stokes and and Morgan, surely Joe Root should come in and anchor one end. Roy is a luxury which doesn't come off regularly enough.

    Craig in Norwich

  7. Eng 1-1

    Target 180

    Kagiso Rabada, the leading wicket-taker, is getting it to zip through. Chasing under lights is looking tricky.

  8. Tymal Mills
    England bowler

    There's turn straightaway for the left-arm spinner. A very similar action to Mitchell Santner from New Zealand - and he's causing England a couple of early problems.

  9. Eng 1-1

    Target 180

    It's taken one over of the South Africa innings for you to wonder if England were a spinner light.

  10. Eng 1-1

    Target 180

    Looking again, it was a pretty horrible ball from Linde. Short. Roy lost his shape and got an under edge.

    Dawid Malan, the top-ranked batsman in T20 internationals, is the new man. He's almost in trouble too, a leading edge. The ball is sitting in the pitch.

  11. wicket

    WICKET

    Roy c De Kock b Linde 0 (Eng 0-1)

    He's got a wicket with his second ball!

    There's turn for George Linde. Jason Roy goes back and tries to force through the off side, but only gets a feather through to Quinton de Kock. The ducks (Egyptian geese, actually) waddle past JRoy.

    One of England's heavy hitters is back in the shed.

  12. Tymal Mills
    England bowler

    The England batting line-up is very strong - Buttler, Roy, Bairstow, Malan, the list goes on.

  13. The England openers are out there. Jason Roy on strike, Jos Buttler at the other end. They'll be facing the left-arm spin of debutant George Linde.

  14. Jonathan Agnew
    BBC cricket correspondent

    It's very curious the way England use Stokes. Sometimes he doesn't bowl at all. The fact he didn't bowl makes you wonder if his body is creaking a little bit.

  15. Tymal Mills
    England bowler

    It wasn't a day Tom Curran will look back on fondly. But it happens in T20 cricket, and it was one of those days. South Africa have put a good total on the board.

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    Jordan going for 10 an over, T Curran for nearly 14. Why didn't Morgan give Stokes an over or two?

    Adam

    Why did Morgan persist with TC?

    Steve Kneale

  17. Jonathan Agnew
    BBC cricket correspondent

    It's game on. I always felt that 180 was a competitive score here. Will it challenge England? It's under lights and the pitch is stopping a bit, but England have an incredibly powerful batting line-up.

  18. It's a wonderful evening in Cape Town, a beautiful red sky.

    You know what they say about a red sky? In the morning, shepherd's warning. At night, barn on fire.

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    Cassini: Sam Curran best T20 figures while brother Tom gets his worst... awkward family dinner tonight...

  20. Thanks, Callum. This promises to be a cracking way to start the weekend that will see my Christmas tree go up.

    That's right. In November. I've already dabbled in some Christmas songs.