England v South Africa: second men’s T20 international – live | Cricket

9th over: England 150-1 (Salt 62, Bethell 2) This is now officially bonkers. Salt – who was overshadowed by Buttler despite scoring at a strike rate of TWO HUNDRED AND FORTY – assumes the lead role and mangles poor old Lisaad Williams for 20 from four legal deliveries. Six over midwicket, four through mid-off, six over extra-cover, four to wide long-on.

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Somewhere in all that Salt brought up a relatively ponders fifty from 19 balls.

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Buttler pumps two more sixes off Fortuin – long on and midwicket I think, though they’er starting to blur into one – before pinging a hockey stroke to deep backward square, where Tristan Stubbs takes a sharp catch as he falls backwards.

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Buttler walks off to a standing ovation, which can’t have happened too often for a player who faced 30 deliveries and batted for only 35 minutes. In that time Buttler struck eight fours and seven sixes, most with an eerie serenity.

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Buttler is out for a quite astonishing 83 off 30 balls.”,”caption”:”Jos Buttler is out for a quite astonishing 83 off 30 balls.”,”credit”:”Photograph: Darren Staples/AFP/Getty Images”}}],”attributes”:{“pinned”:false,”keyEvent”:true,”summary”:false},”blockCreatedOn”:1757700187000,”blockCreatedOnDisplay”:”14.03 EDT”,”blockLastUpdated”:1757700672000,”blockLastUpdatedDisplay”:”14.11 EDT”,”blockFirstPublished”:1757700422000,”blockFirstPublishedDisplay”:”14.07 EDT”,”blockFirstPublishedDisplayNoTimezone”:”14.07″,”title”:”WICKET! 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6th over: England 100-0 (Salt 33, Buttler 65) The teenage left-arm seamer Kwena Maphaka is invited to do something, anything. He starts well, conceding two from his first three balls. And then he too is Buttlered: a slap through the covers is followed by a devastating swipe down the ground for six.

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That brings up the England hundred inside six overs. This is comfortably their highest Powerplay score, beating the 89 for 3 they scored against South Africa in a classic World T20 game at Mumbai nine years ago. On that occasion England chased down 230 to win; South Africa are facing a similar target.

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5th over: England 88-0 (Salt 32, Buttler 54) Rabada returns to the attack and is monstered down the ground for six by Buttler. Three successive fours take Buttler to a quite exhilarating 50 from 18 balls. He waves his bat to the ground, then snaps his head back to salute his late father.

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The second of those three fours tempted mid-on, who dived in an attempt to take a low catch but was beaten by the dip on the ball.

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I’m not even sure South Africa have bowled badly you know; it’s been a startling assault from the England openers.

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Buttler reaches his fifty in just 18 balls. “,”caption”:”Jos Buttler reaches his fifty in just 18 balls. 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4th over: England 68-0 (Salt 31, Buttler 35) The left-arm spinner Bjorn Fortuin assumes the position. Salt pulls him for four to bring up the fifty partnership in just 3.2 overs; Buttler drives successive deliveries over mid-off for six and four. Remember when a six was an event?

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Fortuin tries slowing his pace down with the last ball of the over. Buttler waits and waits and clubs it to exactly the same area for four more. He has 35 from 14 balls, Salt 31 from 10. It’s no exaggeration to say that England could get 500 here.

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3rd over: England 48-0 (Salt 26, Buttler 20) The new bowler Lizaad Williams starts with two good deliveries – after which his figures are 0.2-0-12-0. Buttler pulled the first ferociously for six even though it wasn’t particularly short, and made room to blast the second over long on.

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Two wides and a single are followed by successive boundaries for Salt, a pull and an edge wide of the keeper. Some start, this.

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One change apiece. Jofra Archer comes in for Jamie Overton in the England XI; South Africa bring in the left-arm spinner Bjorn Fortuin from Corbin Bosch. Keshan Maharaj has a groin strain.

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England Salt, Buttler (wk), Brook (c), Bethell, Banton, Curran, Jacks, Dawson, Archer, Rashid, Wood.

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South Africa Markram (c), Rickelton, Pretorious, Brevis, Stubbs, Ferreira, Jansen, Rabada, Forruin, Maphaka, Williams.

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“The wicket looks a bit different, we hope there’s a bit of moisture early on,” says their captain Aiden Markram.

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Harry Brook says England would have batted on what is a used pitch.

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It’s Friday, it’s 6pm, it’s time for TFI Not Raining in Manchester. After the soggiest of T20 matches in Cardiff on Wednesday, England and South Africa will hope for an actual 20-overs-a-side match tonight. There’s a chance of showers later – come on, it’s September in Manchester – but the signs are much better than they were 48 hours ago.

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England need a win to avoid a second white-ball series defeat to South Africa. That’s a slightly weird sentence to write given the series is only 12.5 overs old. But South Africa handled the weirdness and the conditions far better on Wednesday, so if they win again in a more orthodox game tonight, England can have no complaints.

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The match starts at 6.30pm.

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Key events

Salt smashes 19-ball fifty

9th over: England 150-1 (Salt 62, Bethell 2) This is now officially bonkers. Salt – who was overshadowed by Buttler despite scoring at a strike rate of TWO HUNDRED AND FORTY – assumes the lead role and mangles poor old Lisaad Williams for 20 from four legal deliveries. Six over midwicket, four through mid-off, six over extra-cover, four to wide long-on.

Somewhere in all that Salt brought up a relatively ponders fifty from 19 balls.

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