SA v Eng 4th ODI Review: Morris steals a thrilling victory for South Africa

The fourth ODI of the series was a do or die game for the hosts who were trailing 2-1 before the start of the match. It was an absolute thriller as it swung from side to side throughout the span. England were 6 down when Root rebuilt the English innings to post a total of 262. South Africa were counted out of the game at one stage when they were 8 down and in came the star of the show, Chris Morris. Morris smacked the bowlers to all parts of the ground and singlehandedly won one of the most comprehensive and thrilling matches of the recent times. Morris, with his 38-ball 62 snatched the victory for the hosts from the jaws of defeat to keep the series alive for South Africa. The series now stands level at 2-2.

Chasing a modest looking 262, the South African team had a deadly start as Hashim Amla was dismissed for a duck in the first over of the Protea innings. Quinton de Kock and Faf du Plessis looked struggling but gained momentum as the play progressed. They put up 61 for the second wicket before de Kock was cleaned up by Ben Stokes for 27 in the 14th over. In the very next over, Chris Woakes got through the defences of Faf du Plessis to dismiss him on 34. This meant that there were two new batsmen at the crease, JP Duminy and AB de Villiers, and the onus was on them to reinstate the innings.

The experienced pair looked to be doing exactly that as they kept rotating the strike and hit the occasional boundaries to keep the required run rate in control. Just when the two batsmen looked settled and South Africa seemed cruising along to level the series, Woakes came up with a superlative effort on the field to run out skipper AB de Villiers. De Villiers tried to steal a single and Woakes swooped in his follow through, hurled an underarm throw and AB was short by half a yard. The bowler knew it straightaway and the English team saw the match as good as taken at that stage. AB could only manage 36 of 27 balls with 4 boundaries and a maximum.

Farhaan Behardien walked in to bat and England introduced Adil Rashid into the attack to tackle the attacking batsman. A couple of overs later, the other set batsman, JP Duminy was trapped lbw by Rashid on 31. David Wiese and Behardien then put up a brief resistance, a partnership of 48 in 50 balls, before he was caught and bowled by Reece Topley for 38. Wiese’s stay did not last long either as he was dismissed by Stokes after scoring 21 of 32 deliveries. Kagiso Rabada was dismissed for a golden duck by Topley and the hosts were seen struggling 210/8 in 41.3 overs, still needing 53 to save the series.

In the same over, Morris was dropped by Rashid and the game could have well gone out of reach for the hosts. Just when the chips were down, Morris stepped on the accelerator and hit every bowler in the English line up. He hit Topley for a maximum in the 44th over, followed it up with a four and a six in the next over by Woakes and then carved 6, 4, 4 in the 46th over by Broad to bring the equation down to 8 needed off 24 balls with two wickets to spare.

Eoin Morgan threw the ball to Ben Stokes, who is believed to have the golden arm, in the 47th over. Stokes bowled two dot balls and the third ball was spanked hard by Morris into the orbits; that perhaps sealed the game for South Africa. Morris took a single to level the score. Kyle Abbott blocked the last delivery for Morris to take the strike in the next over and hit the winning runs. The last bit of drama unfolded when he was dismissed by Adil Rashid on the first ball of the 48th over and the Wanderers crowd was shunned to silence. Morris scored 62 of 38 balls with 3 boundaries and 4 sixes. In walked Tahir, Rashid bowled a big turner, Tahir pushed it through the covers for a boundary and South Africa clinched an absolute thriller to win by one wicket.

Earlier in the day, England were put into bat by the hosts. Kagiso Rabada provided the early breakthrough by dismissing Jason Roy for just 6 in the 6th over. Alex Hales was joined by Joe Root at the crease. The duo added 69 of 75 balls for the second wicket and mixed caution with aggression to take the score past 50. Alex Hales brought up his half century in 55 balls only to be holding out on the very next delivery to substitute fielder David Miller off the bowling of Imran Tahir. An over later, Tahir picked up two wickets in the space of 3 deliveries to put the visitors on the back foot. He got rid of Morgan and Stokes, both scoring 2 runs, in the 20th over to put England on 97/4.

While Joe Root was deeply rooted to the crease, wickets at the other kept tumbling. Buttler could manage only 1 and Moeen Ali scored 4, both falling to Kyle Abbott. After a total middle order collapse, the English side looked stranded at 108/6 in 25 overs. Joe Root finally found some support in the form of Chris Woakes who started cautiously and nudged the ball around to rotate the strike. He marshalled along to rebuild the England innings singlehandedly. In the process, he notched up his second ton of the series. He lost Woakes in the 42nd over after a 95-run stand for the 7th wicket. The partnership was broken when Rabada got the outside edge to offer de Kock a simple catch. Woakes scored a handy 33 of 38 balls.

Adil Rashid joined Root and put on another 30 runs before the set batsman Root became Chris Morris’ victim in the 45th over. Root, in his attempt to accelerate the innings, perished after scoring a well compiled 124 ball 109. He hit 10 boundaries and a six in his marathon innings that took England to a respectable total.

Rashid provided some late hitting, scoring 39 of 26, before getting out to young Rabada. He picked up his fourth wicket by dismissing Stuart Broad for 6 to also end the England innings on 262/10 in 47.5 overs. Rabada was the pick of the bowlers with figures of 4/45 while Imran Tahir picked 3/46.

Brief Scores:

England: 262/10 in 17.4 overs (Root 109; Rabada 4/45)

South Africa: 266/9 in 47.2 overs (Morris 62; Rashid 2/38)

Man of the Match: Chris Morris (South Africa)