Hello and welcome to Telegraph Sport’s coverage of England’s crucial one-day international against South Africa.
England lost the first match but leveled the series with a 118-run win at Old Trafford on Friday.
South Africa’s Heinrich Klaasen admitted he played “old-school tricks” and slowed down the clock in that defeat by England.
“It was just a bit of old school tricks to see if I was just changing the momentum and slowing the game down a bit,” he said.
“The English boys didn’t like it. I knew it was going to happen, so it’s nothing new to me. But for me in that situation we weren’t in a good position so it was just to break the rhythm of the game a little bit, just see what happens. The rain came down a little bit harder… I hope the umpires could have taken us out.”
A minimum of 20 overs per innings is required for a match to be considered complete and with 11 out, Klaassen initiated a pause in play as he complained about a small white spot at the bottom of the Brian Statham End viewing screen.
“It frustrated a lot of their guys, so the ploy kind of worked. That kind of thing doesn’t bother me at all, it’s fun and games,” he said.
“I hope we can have a cold drink or a beer after the next game and be good friends.” If they can keep him on the field, it’s easy for me to keep him on the field. I have no problem with what I say, what they call me, what they do to me. But let’s keep it on the field.”
England’s Bryden Carse has been ruled out of today’s match after picking up an injury to his right big toe during the opening ODI at Chester-le-Street on Tuesday.
The Durham bowler is the latest in a long line of England fast bowlers to suffer injury layoffs. Jofra Archer, Saqib Mahmood, Ollie Stone and Matthew Fisher are out with back fractures, while Mark Wood and Chris Woakes are also out with injury.
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