It is very rare that a target of 134 produces a thrilling contest, but that was the case at Newlands, where a capacity crowd was captivated by another melodramatic match won for South Africa off the last ball by England’s latest bête noir, Chris Morris.
England had been tigerish in the field when defending such a modest total. But they had not been flawless. Reece Topley failed to take a catch at third man from the first ball received by Morris – a moment that will haunt him for a while.
Topley, soon after his misjudgment, was given the dubious honour of bowling the final over with South Africa requiring 15 to win and the dreaded Morris eager to repeat his heroics of the Wanderers in the final one-day international last week. The first ball to Kyle Abbott yielded a single. Topley attempted another yorker but this time Morris was on strike. He slammed for four. The next one of a similar length was cracked for six over long-on. There followed a precious dot ball and a scrambled two.
So South Africa needed two from the final delivery. Morris smashed the ball to long-off, where Joe Root collected it and threw it cleanly back to Topley at the bowler’s end. It was a fine, well-directed return and Abbott was short of his ground but poor Topley failed to gather it. Thus South Africa prevailed without recourse to a super over. Several of England’s players were clearly devastated by the defeat; they had produced such a spirited effort in the field and the bowlers had been excellent but for the second time in eight days they had allowed Morris to snatch an unlikely victory.