England’s slide to defeat started within the first over when Phil Salt, having crashed two fours, tamely top-edged a pull to mid-wicket for 9.
His match tally of 30 runs in three innings is six higher than Jamie Smith’s, who ended with a three-ball duck as he departed in similar trend to Salt.
There was to be no rebuild from Ben Duckett and Root this time. The previous chipped a return catch to Marco Jansen, who dismissed the highest three in taking 3-39, through a forefront, whereas Root was bowled by seamer Wiaan Mulder.
In between, Harry Brook, many individuals’s favorite to take over from Buttler, provided an excessive amount of air in making an attempt to clear mid-wicket and was brilliantly caught by the sprawling Jansen on the boundary.
South Africa’s fielding was very good – Lungi Ngidi athletically catching Jamie Overton whereas working again from mid-on – however a frazzled England have been inept of their decision-making.
The worst dismissal was that of Liam Livingstone, who charged spinner Keshav Maharaj, tried a hack to leg, missed and was stumped for 9.
Buttler’s closing innings as captain resulted in tame trend as he looped Ngidi to mid-off. When Mulder nicked off Adil Rashid to complete with 3-25, England had been dismissed inside their allotted overs for the eighth time in 11 matches this yr.
