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4th over: England 28-2 (Duckett 17, Root 1) Duckett, still quite unruffled, glances Ngidi for four more – but then he’s nearly run out! He plays a nice square force, turns for the third run, and would be out by several yards if South Africa had anyone at the stumps to gather Stubbs’s excellent throw (Markram did amble in, rather too late). So Duckett survives and he’s now the leading scorer in this Champions Trophy, with 220, just ahead of Ibrahim Zadran (217).
3rd over: England 20-2 (Duckett 10, Root 0) So England’s two in-form batters are together again. And their two top-order flops just keep on flopping: Salt finishes with 30 runs in the tournament, Smith 24. McCullum gambled by putting Smith in at No 3, giving him an unfamiliar position in an unfamiliar format, and the gamble never looked like paying off.
WICKET! Smith c Markram b Jansen 0 (England 20-2)
Same again! A short ball, a miscued pull, a top edge, a simple catch. Jamie Smith’s first ICC tournament ends not with a bang, but a whimper.
2nd over: England 18-1 (Duckett 9, Smith 0) England have two players who have held their heads high throughout this troubled tour – Ben Duckett and Joe Root. Duckett, facing Lungi Ngidi, plays two serene clips for four, as if he hadn’t even noticed that he’d lost his opening partner.
1st over: England 9-1 (Duckett 0, Smith 0) Marco Jansen’s left-arm angle was a foreign language to poor Salt, who hadn’t even been able to face it in the nets as England left all their lefties at home. He managed a spank over cover for four but played and missed twice, almost gave a catch in the ring with a shovel to leg, and then got that top edge. One of the worst run-a-ball innings you will ever see.
WICKET! Salt c van der Dussen b Jansen 8 (England 9-1)
Oh dear. As a top edge soars into the air and plops into the hands of midwicket, Phil Salt’s miserable tournament is complete. And so, perhaps, is his ODI career.
The players are out there and the pitch is a biscuit, albeit with a few cracks. Correction to the team sheet: South Africa’s keeper is Klaasen, not Rickelton.
And here’s our man on the ground. “Greetings from Karachi, Tim, where the public address system hype person has just announced the two teams to err pretty much nobody,” says Ali Martin. “Did walk past Shahid Afridi in the media centre just now. He looks very dapper in a pink suit and aviators. It’s his birthday today, apparently, 48 years young. In other news, it appears Australia and (in all likelihood) South Africa will both fly from Pakistan to Dubai today, with one of them then doing an Abe Simpson and heading straight back to Lahore, depending on the result of India versus New Zealand tomorrow. What a farce.”
It’s grim, the way the ICC bosses pander to India. Volodymyr Zelenskyy they are not.
Teams: South Africa
Bavuma’s place goes to Tristan Stubbs, and Heinrich Klaasen is back to give the middle order an air of friendly menace.
1 Ryan Rickelton (wkt), 2 Tristan Stubbs, 3 Rassie van der Dussen, 4 Aiden Markram (capt), 5 Heinrich Klaasen, 6 David Miller, 7 Wiaan Mulder, 8 Marco Jansen, 9 Keshav Maharaj, 10 Kagiso Rabada, 11 Lungi Ngidi.
Teams: England
Mark Wood picked up yet another injury on Wednesday, so England bring in Saqib Mahmood, whose swing should add some much-needed variety. That’s the only change: Brendon McCullum is not a coach who believes in giving everybody a go.
England 1 Salt, 2 Duckett, 3 Smith (wkt), 4 Root, 5 Brook, 6 Buttler (capt), 7 Livingstone, 8 J Overton, 9 Archer, 10 Rashid, 11 Mahmood.
The other captain is ... Aiden Markram
There’s illness in the South African camp and Temba Bavuma is one of those who are stricken. Aiden Markram takes over, possibly not on the strength of his oratory. At the toss, he’s a little terse, but polite. “Happy to chase,” he mutters, “against a strong England team.”
Toss: a win for Jos!
Jos Buttler calls heads, and heads it is. He decides to bat first. “Honoured to do it for one last time,” he says. “A bit of sadness – it’s such an honour and it’s not panned out as I would have liked it to. But, some good moments along the way…” He can say that again: he won a T20 World Cup. And even in the bad times, he has led with dignity and decency.
Preamble
Well, this is exciting. South Africa have all but qualified already, and England, after yesterday’s damp squib involving Australia and Afghanistan, can’t even climb off the bottom of the group. If the coaches had a full set of reserves, they might be tempted to make 11 changes.
Still, there’s always pride. And personal achievement. And the arc of a career. There are wickets to be taken, hundreds to be scored, nudges to be given. One side have semi-final places to play for; the other have markers to lay down for a rebuild. And Jos Buttler has one last outing as England’s white-ball captain. He may have had a torrid time lately, but he was good enough to lift a World Cup.
The rubber may be a dead one, but this is a contest between the second-fastest scorers in the 2025 Champions Trophy so far and the third-fastest. And it’s not the South Africans who are second.
Play starts at 9am GMT. See you about 8.35 with news of the toss and the teams.
