South Africa Vs England, 1st T20, Cape Town
With rain around, South Africa chose to chase in the first T20 and they will do it without Quinton de Kock. The wicketkeeper was suffering a “slight niggle”, according to captain Faf du Plessis, so the gloves will be back in AB de Villiers’ hands and he will also open the batting with Hashim Amla.As a precaution, South Africa will not risk de Kock during the two-match series with England but expect him to be fit for Australia’s visit and the World T20 next month.
Further down the line-up, David Miller is back in the team after sitting out the entire ODI series. Rilee Rossouw has been given an opportunity and with JP Duminy playing his first international on his home ground this summer, after being dropped for the Cape Town Test and ODI, there was no space for under-fire Farhaan Behardien. The attack was more familiar with both allrounders included along with Kagiso Rabada, Kyle Abbott and Imran Tahir.England’s XI was a more straightforward affair. They picked what Eoin Morgan called their “strongest team”, which included Joe Root, Ben Stokes and Moeen Ali, who were all rested for the warm-up match in Paarl on Wednesday. England beat South Africa A by 44 runs in that match.
South Africa: 1 AB de Villiers (wk), 2 Hashim Amla, 3 Faf du Plessis, 4 JP Duminy, 5 Rilee Rossouw, 6 David Miller, 7 David Wiese, 8 Chris Morris, 9 Kagiso Rabada, 10 Kyle Abbott, 11 Imran Tahir
England: 1 Jason Roy, 2 Alex Hales, 3 Joe Root, 4 Eoin Morgan (capt), 5 Ben Stokes, 6 Jos Buttler (wk), 7 Moeen Ali, 8 Chris Jordan, 9 Adil Rashid, 10 David Willey, 11 Reece Topley
