[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

2nd One-Day International

The Rose Bowl, Southampton

ENGLAND team (previous match): Alex Hales, Jason Roy, Joe Root, Eoin Morgan (capt), Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler (wk), Moeen Ali, Chris Woakes, Adil Rashid, Liam Plunkett, Mark Wood

SOUTH AFRICA team (previous match): Quinton de Kock (wk), Hashim Amla, AB de Villiers (capt), Faf du Plessis, JP Duminy, David Miller, Wayne Parnell, Chris Morris, Wayne Parnell, Andile Phehlukwayo, Kagiso Rabada, Imran Tahir


An emphatic win at Headingley got England off to a dream start in this series, and tomorrow they go after a win on the south coast to wrap things up nice and early.

Both teams were their own worst enemies with the bat on Wednesday, offering up cheap wickets on a pitch that was doing very little for bowlers.  Ultimately it was England who got a telling partnership together between Moeen Ali and Eoin Morgan in the second half of their innings, and South Africa couldn't find a pair to match it.  Even Virat Kohli professed his admiration for the performance, and the fact is that England weren't even firing on all cylinders.

But then, nor were South Africa.  And if both sides hit their full potential at Southampton tomorrow, we could see some real fireworks.  The tourists will need Imran Tahir to put Wednesday's toothless showing behind him and be in the hunt for wickets, and likewise, they'll want more with the bat from Quinton de Kock.  Whisper it quietly, but in spite of some fine shots even AB de Villiers wasn't quite the force of nature that he can be on his day.  No-one shifts gears like the South Africans, and if they get out of first tomorrow then they'll be a force to be reckoned with.

For England there's good news in Ben Stokes being declared fit, and though the temptation must be to protect him so close to the Champions Trophy and give Bairstow a chance, I suspect sticking with a winning team is the better option.  For South Africa we may see Morne Morkel preferred to Phehlukwayo this time round, in spite of the latter's wickets in the first game.

Some overnight showers are forecast to give way to another day's hot sunshine.  Expect runs, and lots of them.

Play commences at 1100, 27th May 2017