Rassie van der Dussen was the coolest man on the park and scored his third ODI century, a career-best 134, as South Africa posted their highest ODI score in England and the second-highest at Chester-le-Street. That asked England to complete their sixth-highest successful run-chase but South Africa's spinners, in particular, combined discipline and attack to seal a statement win. Keshav Maharaj, Tabraiz Shamsi and Aiden Markram bowled 15 overs and took five for 120 between them.
Though this series does not count for World Cup Super League points, it is the start of an important eight months for South Africa which includes tours to England and Australia and the T20 World Cup. They began it without regular white-ball captain Temba Bavuma, who injured his elbow ahead of this trip, but Maharaj's decision-making was flawless from the moment he won the toss and chose to shield his fielders from the afternoon sun.
South Africa made England's attack toil on a benign pitch, and without the services of debutant Matthew Potts for the bulk of their innings. Potts bowled four overs upfront but left the field after feeling adverse effects from the heat but returned to bat at No.11. The rest of the quicks delivered mostly short spells - aside from Sam Curran's five-over spell at the start - with the spinners Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid doing the longer slogs.
None of them were entirely threatening against South Africa's line-up, who seemed to labour at times, but ended up with more than enough. South Africa did not hit a single six but relied on the accumulating skills of Janneman Malan, who scored his fourth fifty in the format and shared in a 109-run second-wicket stand with van der Dussen, a paragon of patience. Being no master-blaster, van der Dussen ran 57 singles, 15 twos and two threes and batted for three minutes short of three hours to put together a masterful hundred and set up a big win. Van der Dussen also shared in a record third-wicket stand of 151 for South Africa against England with Markram, who scored his fifth 50.
While there did not seem to be many fireworks in the South African innings, they took on the spinners, used the reverse-sweep to good effect, and rode out the periods of pressure. When Malan was dismissed, England put the brakes on and South Africa only scored 31 runs in the next six overs, but that allowed Markram to settle. Once he did, he targeted the sixth bowling option and scored 21 runs off 15 balls he faced from Liam Livingstone.
Source: https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/south-africa-in-england-2022-1276896/england-vs-south-africa-1st-odi-1276910/match-report
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