By then, South Africa were clueless. Maphaka tried a slower ball and Salt sent it over short leg, then he went short and Salt pulled fine, and even when he got it on a good length, Salt sent it down the ground. He took England to 166 for 1 at the halfway stage. When Rabada returned, to bowl the 13th over, Salt took advantage of two free hits as the senior seamer struggled for rhythm, then reached his century off the second. And Salt wasn’t done there. When he stepped outside his stumps and sent Williams over square leg for six, he became the holder of the highest individual score for England in T20Is. He survived when Maphaka thought he had caught Salt at wide long-on with a relay catch but replays showed Maphaka’s heels were on the boundary cushion and he conceded another six. Salt finished on 141 not out from 60 balls, the seventh highest score in a T20I.

An Archer hat-trick but not the traditional way

Jofra Archer was rested from the rain-reduced first T20I but roared back and played a part in each of the first three South African wickets. After South Africa got off to a decent start with 50 runs in the first 3.3 overs, they were starting to hit their stride. Ryan Rickelton took 16 runs off the first three balls of Archer’s second over and thought he had four more when he viciously swiped at the fourth ball but Liam Dawson at short midwicket pulled off the ultimate intercept to end his innings. Rickelton was dismissed for 20. Three deliveries later, Archer’s slower ball had the better of Lhuan-dre Pretorius, who top-edged a slog-sweep and was caught at short third. South Africa were 53 for 2 after five overs. They already needed a massive effort to hunt down the target but with Dewald Brevis at No.4, they would have still believed.

Brevis hit the first ball he faced, from Sam Curran, for four but then tried to send Curran over mid-wicket and miscued. Archer was at mid-on and barely had to move to complete the catch which left South Africa 57 for 4 in the Powerplay and the game all but gone. Archer did get a third, when he returned in the 12th over, with South Africa 115 for 5. Jansen played a legcutter straight back to Archer who had to get down low and then recover from the ball busting out of his right hand as he clutched it in his left to complete the catch. And for good measure, he took two more catches, to dismiss Tristan Stubbs and Kagiso Rabada.

Curran aims for the moon

Super-duper slow (aka the moon-ball) is the Sam Curran way and he was the pick of the English bowlers as he used his change-ups well. While Curran bowled some deliveries at around 47mph, he had Brevis caught off a quicker one and Donovan Ferreira was deceived by a short ball. Ferreira tried to hit a cross-batted slog but skied the ball over Buttler, who did well to run back and take the catch. Curran finished with 2 for 11 in two overs with an economy of 5.50. Only Will Jacks, who took two wickets in his only over and conceded two runs, had a better return with 2 for 1.

Brief scores:
England 304 for 2 in 20 overs (Phil Salt 141*, Jos Buttler 83, Jacob Bethell 26, Harry Brook 41*; Bjorn Fortuin 2-52)  beat  South Africa 158 in 16.1 overs (Aiden Markram 41, Ryan Rickelton 20, Tristan Stubbs 23, Donovan Ferreira 23, Bjorn Fortuin 32; Jofra Archer 3-25, Sam Curran 2-11, Liam Dawson 2-34, Adil Rashid 1-48, Will Jacks 2-02) by 146 runs

[Cricinfo]