5th ODI: South Africa v England at Cape Town

The fifth and final ODI at Cape Town. England lose the toss and lose Jason Roy early. It sure would be nice if Roy can at some point live up to his potential. The selectors have stuck with him so far, but he is going to need to start scoring some runs to keep his place in this side. England 30/1 (6 ov).

Crickey. It's all going on early here. Root dropped by Amla. What a costly mistake that could be, and then the very next ball, Hales is given out caught behind, but immediately calls for a replay, and the decision is overturned. Not sure how the umpire gave that one out. The noise was clearly the bat hitting the ground and there wasn't a whole lot of interest aside from that of the keeper. Even the bowler didn't go up. England 45/1 (8 ov).

Root out lbw. Originally given not out, Tahir was convinced he was out, pleaded with ABdV to review, who agreed, and replays showed the ball to be clanging into middle stump. A big wicket. England 76/2.

Morgan fails again. A horrendous shot. Just poor cricket. England in a bit of bother now. 85/3 (16.3)

After the cracker of a match last time this is turning out to be an interesting decider. But England seem to be doing OK here. 97/3 after 19 overs is a decent score but I think they will need at least 275 to be a force here

Stokes is bowled around his legs. An unusual dismissal to see a batsman go so far across the offside and get bowled leg stump. And now Buttler drags one on. His lack of runs since the first ODI continues. England in some trouble again. 156/5 (28 ov).

England just throwing wickets away left, right and centre. Really poor batting from Moeen Ali, Woakes and Rashid. Poor Hales is going to be left stranded at the other end with 10+ overs left at this rate. England 192/8 (37 ov).

  England 236 after 45 overs

  South Africa 237 - 5 from 44 overs

  South Africa won by 5 wickets ,with 36 balls remaining !!

South Africa will always be able to treasure coming back from 2-0 down

- they did so in Pakistan in 2003-04 and have done it again here

Bangladesh against Zimbabwe in 2004-05

Pakistan in India in 2005 - in a six-match series -

are the other occasions  !!!

I'm happy with the result but South Africa sure had some nervous moments along the way, especially when we were reduced to 22/3. The new bowling line-up seems to be taking shape nicely but I wonder what the selectors will do when Steyn and Philander are fit again. We really need bowlers who can bat and I can't see either of those two winning an ODI with the bat.