England vs South Africa – Surprising move of the day

The hosts England took on the South African team in the opening game of the World Cup. England justified their favourites tag as they defeated the Proteas comfortably by 104 runs. Faf du Plessis won the toss and opted to bowl first on a slightly slow wicket at the Oval in London.

The most surprising move of the day came when the game started. It was an early start and Faf at the toss had mentioned that there might be some help for the pacers upfront so everybody expected South Africa’s pacers Lungi Ngidi and Kagiso Rabada to open the bowling. But to everybody’s surprise, Faf handed the ball to his veteran wrist-spinner, Imran Tahir. He later mentioned at the post-match presentation that England’s openers Jason Roy and Jonny Bairstow are used to playing the pace bowlers at the start of the innings and he wanted to surprise them with something different. The English batsmen definitely didn’t see this coming and as a result, Jonny Bairstow fell prey to the plan.

The 40-year-old leg-spinner continued his purple patch from the IPL as he stuck in the first over by picking the wicket of the dangerous Jonny Bairstow. It wasn’t a great start to Bairstow’s World Cup career as he had to depart for a golden duck. The England batsmen later on consolidated the innings and scored 311-8 with Ben Stokes being the highest scorer. At the halfway stage, England seemed to be a little bit short but in the end, it was far too many for the Proteas batsmen.

Chasing 312, South Africa never really got going as they lost wickets at regular intervals. Jofra Archer, England’s X-Factor bowler gave early breakthroughs as SA were reduced to 44-2. Quinton De Kock and Rassie Van der Dussen held the fort for a while but once QDK was dismissed all the batsmen fell like nine pins. Eventually, they were bowled out for 207. Ben Stokes for his all-round performance won the Man of the Match award. England just showed what they are capable of whereas South Africa has to get the ground running ass they have two more games in quick time.