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Three match series between South Africa and England starts on Friday in Bloemfontein which also hosts the second game before the series ends in Kimberley. Should be a very enjoyable series.

Squad - Buttler © Ali, Archer, Brook, S Curran, Duckett, Malan, Rashid, Roy, Salt, Stone, Topley, Willey, Woakes

South Africa won the toss & will bat. England omit Salt, Woakes & Topley from the above squad.

SA TEAM : - de Kock (wk), Bavuma ©, van der Dussen, Markram, Klaasen, Miller, Parnell, Magala, Rabada. Nortje, Shamsi

South Africa v England 1st ODI Bloemfontein
South Africa elected to field
SA 298-7 (50 overs) van der Dussen 111 Miller 53 de Kock 37 Bavuma 36 Klaasen 30 S Curran 3-35
ENG 271 (44.2 overs) Roy 113 Malan 59 Buttler 36 Nortje 4-62 Magala 3-46
South Africa won by 27 runs

How on earth England contrived to throw that match away is beyond me.
Dreadful collapse.

Absolutely snooks they started off brilliantly then they just had to calm down just a tad and victory would have been done with balls to spare

England were 146-0 in the 20th overs, worse still was to get bowled out with 34 balls remaining & only 28 runs required.

Complete capitulation!! Yes South Africa got more from the pitch than England did, but from the start England got, it took someone to take charge and manage the run - in with smart but, you would have to say, relatively basic cricket brain thinking!

Initially I thought that the track had a ton of runs in it, but England did well (with some help) to restrict SA to a sub (only just) 300 total. Then what happened ...happened!! Neither team had an ideal lead in to this series (thanks to stupid thrashathons everywhere else - (an issue that Athers etc didn't really discuss properly at half - time given the chance) but England have no excuses.....just really poor!

2nd ODI - Bloemfontein

South Africa v England

SA won toss and field

England innings: 342/7 (50 overs)
Buttler 94no, Brook 80, Moeen 51
Nortje 2/64.

South Africa innings: 347/5 (49.1 overs)
Bavuma 109, Miller 58no

South Africa won by 5 wkts and win the series.
Very disappointing . Way too many four balls on a plate for the SA batsmen.
Poor. Very, very poor.