Jonny Bairstow stars again, England beat South Africa in 1st T20

“It means a lot, there are guys in our changing room who score quickly and now I can brag about fastest 50 in T20 cricket for England,” Moeen said. “This was a nice-sized ground for someone like myself, who isn’t the most massive hitter of a ball.”

What more can we say? 🙌

It's the summer of the Bairshow

Highlights: https://t.co/KBhGoEpQIQ

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 #ENGvSA 🇿🇦 pic.twitter.com/Z5V97MncQz

— England Cricket (@englandcricket) July 27, 2022

South Africa slumped to 7-2 after two overs and could only make 193-8 in response despite Tristan Stubbs’ 72 off 28 deliveries. Bairstow was a standout for England in the test match format against New Zealand and India this summer. In his last five test innings, he hit 136, 162, 71 not out, 106 and 114 not out.

The Yorkshire batter had been an injury doubt for the T20 series opener after leaving Tuesday’s practice session at the Seat Unique Stadium with ice packs and strapping around his left knee. South Africa seam bowler Lungi Ngidi took five for 39 and said his team always believed it had a chance after the 21-year-old Stubbs’ performance in his first international innings.

“We definitely thought we could chase it down. Anything was chase-able in the last five (overs) but we lost too many wickets,” Ngidi said. “We had full faith in Stubbs. He’s shown us what he is capable of in training. I’ve bowled to him myself and been on the receiving end of what we saw tonight.”

The second T20 is scheduled for Thursday and the third match is on Sunday.