Wood shines as England snatch win from SA

Southampton, May 27 

Ben Stokes smashed a blistering century and Mark Wood bowled an excellent final over as England beat South Africa by two runs in the second one-day international in Southampton on Saturday for an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series.

After Stokes’s heroics with the bat had helped England score 330/6 in their 50 overs, South Africa needed 10 runs from the last 10 balls of their innings with five wickets remaining, but an excellent final over from Wood that cost just four runs sealed victory.

One worry for England ahead of the looming Champions Trophy starting on Friday is that Stokes managed to bowl only three overs in the South African innings having injured his knee in the first ODI win, but he remained on the field. "Those are the sorts of games you really want to win,” England captain Eoin Morgan said at the post-match presentation at the Rose Bowl. “You learn a lot more. The game got away from us quite a lot. Woody was awesome.” The visitors won the toss and elected to field, reducing England to 80 for three in the 16th over when Joe Root (39) was run out at the non-strikers’ end.

But Stokes (101 from 79 balls) put on 95 for the fourth wicket with Morgan (45) and 77 for the fifth with Jos Buttler (65*) before he became a maiden ODI wicket on debut for South African left-arm spinner Keshav Maharaj.

Opener Quinton de Kock (98 from 103 balls) led the South African reply before he was caught by wicketkeeper Buttler off Moeen Ali. 

Brief scores: England: 330/5 (Stokes 101, Buttler 65*, Morgan 45; Rabada 2/50); South Africa: 328/5 (de Kock 98, Miller 71*; Plunkett 3/64). — Agencies