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South Africa 287 for 5 (Amla 150, Smith 52) v England
Hashim Amla once again led the way for South Africa with a fantastic innings © Getty Images
Hashim Amla has been a familiar sight to the England bowlers during this tour and followed his prolific Test series with a wonderful career-best 150 off 124 balls in the second one-day international to form the cornerstone of South Africa's imposing 287 for 5 on a surface offering considerable help to the spinners.
Amla and Graeme Smith added 89 for the first wicket - after being forced to battle against some lively new-ball bowling - which laid the platform for South Africa. Amla then took over with one of the finest pieces of one-day batting you could wish to see. Amla's hundred, his tenth in one-day internationals, came off 96 balls and it was an innings full of deft placement. He toyed with the England bowlers right to the final moment when he threaded Steven Finn through backward point to reach 150; his third fifty needed just 27 deliveries.
It was another day when Amla's run-scoring feats came into clear focus as he became the fastest man to 3000 ODI runs, beating the previous record held by Viv Richards. To go alongside his triple hundred at The Oval this has been a defining tour for Amla. His innings included 16 boundaries, ranging from the expansive flick over midwicket to the cover drive to the wonderfully cheeky deflection past the keeper off Tim Bresnan late in the innings.
England, though, did not help their cause as far as Amla was concerned. He could have been run out twice - on 1 when Samit Patel, preferred at the last minute to Chris Woakes, was slow to the ball from mid-off, and then on 62 when James Anderson produced a poor throw from short fine leg - and was also dropped twice. The first catching chance came on 42 when Craig Kieswetter put down a thin edge off Patel and the wicketkeeper dropped another, one-handed down the leg side, when Amla had 92.
It was a poor day for Kieswetter and a bad time for fallibility to rear its head, with Jonny Bairstow and Matt Prior breathing down his neck. In a tough analysis of his performance he also missed a chance offered by AB de Villiers, on 1, diving full stretch to his right. It was the hardest of his chances, but the type Kieswetter had started to pluck out of thin air.
However, Kieswetter should have had the catch to remove de Villiers to his name when the South African got a toe-end on a reverse sweep against Graeme Swann which also came off his shoulder. Simon Taufel did not spot the bat, much to Swann's consternation, but England could not complain too much as they had wasted their one review earlier in the innings with an lbw shot against JP Duminy that had pitched outside leg.
De Villiers could have hurt England in the closing overs but Swann evened the score when he beat the batsman as he advanced. Instead it was left to Faf du Plessis to accompany Amla during the latter part of the innings.
The early stages looked much like the Test series. Smith and Amla resisted whatever pressure the England bowlers were able to exert although both had moments of fortune especially during the first spells from Anderson and Finn. England's new-ball bowlers beat the edge, particularly of Smith, with regularity while Amla struggled for early fluency having been starved of the strike.
South Africa waited until the sixth over for their first boundary when Smith, in his typical style, took a ball from well outside off straight past mid-off when most batsman would have driven through extra cover. England's quicks generally maintained a probing line to Smith but his outside edge proved elusive and on the occasion it was found, in Bresnan's first over, the second slip and just been moved to short midwicket.
The acceleration started towards the end of the mandatory Powerplay when overs seven to nine went for a combined 32 runs, including eight boundaries. Fourteen of those runs came off Bresnan's opening over and he remained the most expensive bowler. Swann was introduced in the 12th over but it was Patel who caused the greater problems, justifying the thoughts about the pitch, particularly to Smith who was intent on trying to sweep the left-arm spinner.
Smith reached his fifty from 70 balls before his eagerness to press on during the bowling Powerplay brought his downfall when he top-edged Bresnan. South Africa's momentum stalled for a period as Duminy sacrificed himself in a mix-up with Amla (the end result of the innings showed that was the correct decision) and Dean Elgar, in his first ODI innings after the Cardiff washout, struggled to tick the scoreboard over, especially against the spinners. He had laboured to 15 off 28 balls when Swann turned one past his outside edge to take middle. It was a rare moment for Swann to enjoy in a difficult season.
Hashim Amla once again led the way for South Africa with a fantastic innings © Getty Images
Hashim Amla has been a familiar sight to the England bowlers during this tour and followed his prolific Test series with a wonderful career-best 150 off 124 balls in the second one-day international to form the cornerstone of South Africa's imposing 287 for 5 on a surface offering considerable help to the spinners.
Amla and Graeme Smith added 89 for the first wicket - after being forced to battle against some lively new-ball bowling - which laid the platform for South Africa. Amla then took over with one of the finest pieces of one-day batting you could wish to see. Amla's hundred, his tenth in one-day internationals, came off 96 balls and it was an innings full of deft placement. He toyed with the England bowlers right to the final moment when he threaded Steven Finn through backward point to reach 150; his third fifty needed just 27 deliveries.
It was another day when Amla's run-scoring feats came into clear focus as he became the fastest man to 3000 ODI runs, beating the previous record held by Viv Richards. To go alongside his triple hundred at The Oval this has been a defining tour for Amla. His innings included 16 boundaries, ranging from the expansive flick over midwicket to the cover drive to the wonderfully cheeky deflection past the keeper off Tim Bresnan late in the innings.
England, though, did not help their cause as far as Amla was concerned. He could have been run out twice - on 1 when Samit Patel, preferred at the last minute to Chris Woakes, was slow to the ball from mid-off, and then on 62 when James Anderson produced a poor throw from short fine leg - and was also dropped twice. The first catching chance came on 42 when Craig Kieswetter put down a thin edge off Patel and the wicketkeeper dropped another, one-handed down the leg side, when Amla had 92.
It was a poor day for Kieswetter and a bad time for fallibility to rear its head, with Jonny Bairstow and Matt Prior breathing down his neck. In a tough analysis of his performance he also missed a chance offered by AB de Villiers, on 1, diving full stretch to his right. It was the hardest of his chances, but the type Kieswetter had started to pluck out of thin air.
However, Kieswetter should have had the catch to remove de Villiers to his name when the South African got a toe-end on a reverse sweep against Graeme Swann which also came off his shoulder. Simon Taufel did not spot the bat, much to Swann's consternation, but England could not complain too much as they had wasted their one review earlier in the innings with an lbw shot against JP Duminy that had pitched outside leg.
De Villiers could have hurt England in the closing overs but Swann evened the score when he beat the batsman as he advanced. Instead it was left to Faf du Plessis to accompany Amla during the latter part of the innings.
The early stages looked much like the Test series. Smith and Amla resisted whatever pressure the England bowlers were able to exert although both had moments of fortune especially during the first spells from Anderson and Finn. England's new-ball bowlers beat the edge, particularly of Smith, with regularity while Amla struggled for early fluency having been starved of the strike.
South Africa waited until the sixth over for their first boundary when Smith, in his typical style, took a ball from well outside off straight past mid-off when most batsman would have driven through extra cover. England's quicks generally maintained a probing line to Smith but his outside edge proved elusive and on the occasion it was found, in Bresnan's first over, the second slip and just been moved to short midwicket.
The acceleration started towards the end of the mandatory Powerplay when overs seven to nine went for a combined 32 runs, including eight boundaries. Fourteen of those runs came off Bresnan's opening over and he remained the most expensive bowler. Swann was introduced in the 12th over but it was Patel who caused the greater problems, justifying the thoughts about the pitch, particularly to Smith who was intent on trying to sweep the left-arm spinner.
Smith reached his fifty from 70 balls before his eagerness to press on during the bowling Powerplay brought his downfall when he top-edged Bresnan. South Africa's momentum stalled for a period as Duminy sacrificed himself in a mix-up with Amla (the end result of the innings showed that was the correct decision) and Dean Elgar, in his first ODI innings after the Cardiff washout, struggled to tick the scoreboard over, especially against the spinners. He had laboured to 15 off 28 balls when Swann turned one past his outside edge to take middle. It was a rare moment for Swann to enjoy in a difficult season.