Against all expectations, England have reached the semi-finals of the Champions Trophy. They gorged themselves in Centurion, achieving their highest one-day total against South Africa and their third highest ODI score overseas. They struck 12 sixes, another record. The batting line-up that played with such indecision and, at times, downright incompetence against Australia has been transformed.
England's 22-run margin means that South Africa are definitely eliminated. But only when a prodigious effort by Graeme Smith had been defeated was victory inevitable. Smith was ninth out, hauling Stuart Broad to mid-wicket, his highest ODI score – 141 from 134 balls – unable to make up for the hurt of another South Africa failure in a major one-day tournament.
South Africa had twice made more than 323 at Centurion, and the pitch was benign. Smith's face was wracked with tension – a big man batting with a boulder on his back. He manipulated the ball intelligently, never allowing South Africa's reply to stagnate.
He should have fallen on 83, chipping Paul Collingwood to long-on, where Owais Shah fluffed a regulation chance. A run later, he was just as fortunate to survive Graham Onions's great lbw shout, refused by the umpire Steve Davis.
He got the target below 100 with 62 balls left, and when he called the batting power play with 86 needed from eight, Albie Morkel took 10 off Stuart Broad's first two balls. But Morkel, a dangerous hitter, was run out by England's emergency wicketkeeper, Eoin Morgan. Smith was struck by cramp, but England's captain, Andrew Strauss, refused a runner. Strauss, who had withdrawn a run-out appeal against the Sri Lankan Angelo Mathews after a mid-pitch collision at the Wanderers 48 hours earlier, had no wish to spend his entire life on moral high ground.
England's dominant batting lacked only the ODI century that has eluded them since Kevin Pietersen made 111 in Cuttack hours before the abandonment of the India one-day tour because of terrorism 10 months ago.
Owais Shah, the man of the match, deserved to add to it yesterday, only for his commanding 98 to come to grief against the off-spin of Johan Botha when a defensive push popped up. He struck six of England's sixes, including two contemptuous leg-side blows against Morkel's military mediums. South Africa's trio of spinners disappeared for 140 in 21 overs. Shah's inclusion at No3 has been understandably questioned. Down at No6, the state of the game often shapes his response; at No3, he has to make his own assessment and it can occasionally be overly cautious. This time his tempo was sound.
Collingwood's week off during the NatWest Series has turned him into the Benjamin Button of English cricket. He shared 163 in 26 overs with Shah, working his favoured leg-side region with frisky intent, until with 82 from 94 balls he lost his leg stump.
But the career-defining innings came from Morgan. Morgan's reputation as an innovator has perhaps hung a little heavily on him, but his 67 from 34 balls was the night he proved he has a long-term future. Here, unless you count Nick Knight, could be England's first one-day specialist.
His fifty came in 26 balls, England's second fastest in ODI history, outpaced only by Collingwood's 24-ball effort in Napier last year. His charge at Botha to carve him over extra cover – the first of his five sixes – brimmed with optimism, and was one of the most uplifting moments from an England batsman all summer. He fell at extra cover four balls from the end.
Morgan took the gloves because a virus had laid Matt Prior low, and Morgan was designated to take over the gloves, an emergency role he was expected to fulfil. Stephen Davies, the wicketkeeper en route from Worcestershire to Surrey, today also finds himself en route to Johannesburg. England will monitor Prior for the next 24 hours before deciding whether to ask the ICC for a replacement.
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