England were booed off stage after saving the worst till last to complete a miserable white ball summer with a third series defeat out of four.
Beaten by a whopping 90 runs, their equal worst T20 result ever, England must now reflect on a first winless summer in short form cricket since 2013. But with a T20 World Cup just 10 matches away, it is not the greatest time for Jos Buttler ’s side to be going so cold and leaving crowds so frustrated.
And most concerning of all is the continued misfiring of their batting lineup that never even threatened to get close to South Africa's 191-5 let alone overhaul it. It was the insipid nature of their run chase that perhaps left the crowd so annoyed, hitting just seven boundaries in the 100 balls they faced.
“That’s the first time I’ve heard that in a long time,” said Buttler. “It’s not the show that we wanted to put on, we were a bit too timid and that is the most frustrating thing.
“We have entertained crowds for a while and they’ve been entertained by Test cricket this summer, but it was disappointing from us.”
Former skipper turned commentator Eoin Morgan added: “It is not nice to sit here and hear that as a past player from the crowd. The guys looked tentative.”
Things started so brightly with a wicket maiden from David Willey who removed Quinton de Kock in the first over, but England then slumped further and further into the mire until they were left drowning in their own mediocrity. In all three departments the home side were way off the pace being set by the South Africans who were outstanding across the board.
First by building a largely risk-free platform against an England bowling attack that offered little threat throughout the innings. And when it did, namely with the spin of Moeen Ali that removed dangerman Rilee Rossouw with a beauty, it wasn’t used thereafter.
Moeen bowled the tidiest of overs to take 1-4, but with two right handed batsmen at the crease Buttler whipped him off and refused to try him again, even as the quicker bowlers disappeared to all parts.
It allowed the Proteas to turn on the afterburners with Reeza Hendricks collecting his third successive fifty of the series before skipper David Miller and Tristan Stubbs added the fireworks at the death. In the field Stubbs took the catch of the day to remove Moeen as England’s chase never really got going.
With Phil Salt and Harry Brook waiting in the wings, Jason Roy and Dawid Malan are under increasing pressure to deliver, while Buttler, Liam Livingstone and Sam Curran all fizzled out in the face of South African spinners Keshav Maharaj and Tabraiz Shamsi who took 5-24.
Jonny Bairstow was the last man out before the crowd finally had something to cheer, watching England’s women footballer’s score first in their Euro final.
