South Africa Tour of England 1st ODI
South Africa's reply got off to the worst possibly start with the talented hard hitting South African wicket keeper missed a straight one in the 2nd over to be sent packing by Nigel Llong for a duck. And the visitors once again found themselves in trouble when the Mighty Hash top edged a short Steve Finn cannon to Rashid at short fine leg. De Villiers came out firing smashing 4 boundaries in his first 10 balls while Du Plessis played the anchor role. FAF edged a short one through to the keeper before AB was out LBW missing an inswinging yorker to leave the men in green in serious trouble at 86/4.
Although being well ahead of the Required Run Rate, they would need something special from an out of form middle order to rescue them from the jaws of defeat. And for a while JP Duminy and David Miller seemed to be just doing that with a solid 40 odd stand before Duminy missed a straight one and Miller edged one through to Buttler. Despite numerous starts throughout the match, no batsmen ever seemed 100% in at any stage and this proved true again with both set batsmen falling on 39. SA were truly reeling at 173/6 with no real recognised batsmen to come, but up step Chris Morris and Wayne Parnell with a blitz of there own scoring a brisk 64 run partnership off just 53 balls with Parnell being the primary destroyer scoring 43 of them off just 29.
Just as it seemed it was all done and dusted Eoin Morgan made one final gamble, tossing the ball to Moeen Ali and boy how it worked, getting the big scalp of Parnell first ball and concedingonly 2 runs in the over. Was this going to be the spark England needed? Pressure was mounting once again on the visitors and after Ali's second over was a maiden Morris got frustrated throwing his wicket away for a splendid 46, chasing a wide one with SA needing only 21 to win. Rabada and Morkel would have to see off a dangerous Finn and Ali spell to see SA through and despite a few close calls and a very close appeal for a stumping, the 2 kept their heads seeing SA through.
What a game that turned out to be, twists and turns and heart wrenching moments throughout. SA scraping through on an extremely difficult pitch, winning by 2 wickets.
Imran Tahir was named man of the match for his incredible bowling performance of 4/41 in the middle overs, stifling England in their innings at every
turn, no pun intended.
I play an amazing shot on back foot to the offside and the fielder running to the boundary some how catches it with one hand. 
