South Africa celebrate their T20 victory over England
South Africa celebrate their T20 victory over England

South Africa v England first T20: Lungi Ngidi bowls superb final over as England lose by one run at Buffalo Park


England crumbled late on to lose their first T20 international against South Africa by just one run after a brilliant last over bowled by Lungi Ngidi.

After South Africa recorded 177-8 when batting first in East London, England looked to be well in control as Jason Roy made 70 to leave the tourists on 132-3 in the 15th over, before wickets started to tumble.

Even so, when Ngidi stepped up to bowl the final over England were still favourites as they needed just seven off it for victory and had four wickets up their sleeve.

They could manage just five runs though as Ngidi also took three wickets to send the home crowd wild and send South Africa into a 1-0 lead in the T20 series.

Skipper Eoin Morgan made 52 but, like Roy, could not go on to steer England home and without those two, the rest of the batting line-up crumbled, with England losing their last five wickets for just 24 runs in total.

Roy lit the touchpaper to a chase of 178 with a blistering 70 off 38 balls while Morgan (52 off 34) was at his belligerent best in the penultimate over to leave England needing seven from the last six deliveries.

However, Tom Curran holed out before Moeen Ali was bowled by Ngidi, which left England needing two from the last ball, and Adil Rashid was run out coming back for the second as South Africa drew first blood in the three-match series.

Roy had seemingly left England in a promising position following an innings containing seven fours and three sixes but they, like South Africa before them, found scoring increasingly difficult as the innings progressed.

Having been 105 for one at the halfway stage of their innings, South Africa settled for 177 for eight in a total where Moeen collected one for 22 and Rashid took one for 23, with Chris Jordan taking two wickets in the last over.

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