Jos Buttler:
“Tough day. The efforts were outstanding to field first in that heat. It was a good toss to win and we couldn’t find those breakthroughs. A fantastic partnership. You need to take wickets to stem the flow in this format but they ran well and put us under pressure. We never quite managed to impose ourselves and the wicket got slower and slower, and tougher to time the ball. It wasn’t through lack of trying. [Did you go hard enough?] I don’t think it was a lack of effort. Those two at the top are explosive players but SA read the conditions well and was smart with the way they bowled. [Pressure on senior players with Morgan and Stokes gone?] We’ve been improving through the games we’ve played and we’re missing experienced guys but that creates opportunities for others. Very confident in the team. [Stokes?] From all England fans, we want to say thank you for all that he’s done for this team. He’s been a fantastic ambassador in ODI cricket and we’ll miss him.”
Rassie van der Dussen is Player of the Match:
“Pretty hot day. We’re used to the heat but it was quite dry which made it difficult. Good toss to win, their fielders struggled in the heat. [Focus on running rather than boundaries?] We came into this tour knowing we’d have to play smart cricket. It’s a massive outfield. The game plan was to hit the gaps hard. We didn’t hit one six but overall it was a pretty good batting display. All the guys that came in showed good intent, Janneman up front, and then Aiden. We’re pretty happy with that batting performance. [Put down a marker?] Definitely. We’ve had 10 good days of preparation and knew it was going to be a tough tour. We’ll enjoy tonight.”
Keshav Maharaj:
“Rassie set the tone and the bowlers stuck to their plans. Full credit to the team. We didn’t expect the heatwave in England but it felt a bit like home. It was really hot but luckily enough there were no casualties on the field… [What about Phehlukwayo?] He underestimated the size of me! [Batting?] Quinny and Janneman set the platform and Rassie played special innings. Partnerships were the key. [Spinners in the chase?] We know Markram is a handy allrounder. His bowling is underrated. [Nortje?] He knows his role and stuck to his disciplines.”
Buttler:
“We’d have looked to bat. An emotional day but hopefully we can send him off well. We know we’ve been short of what we’ve been capable of with the bat.”
England vs South Africa 1st ODI Highlights today, Tuesday 19-7-2022. 1st ODI (D/N), South Africa tour of England from Riverside Ground, Chester-le-Street.
Toss: South Africa chose to bat.
England team: 1 Jason Roy, 2 Jonny Bairstow, 3 Joe Root, 4 Ben Stokes, 5 Jos Buttler (capt/wk), 6 Moeen Ali, 7 Liam Livingstone, 8 Sam Curran, 9 Adil Rashid, 10 Brydon Carse, 11 Matthew Potts
South Africa team: 1 Janneman Malan, 2 Quinton de Kock (wk), 3 Rassie van der Dussen, 4 Aiden Markram, 5 Heinrich Klaasen, 6 David Miller, 7 Andile Phehlukwayo, 8 Keshav Maharaj (capt), 9 Anrich Nortje, 10 Lungi Ngidi, 11 Tabraiz Shamsi
Form guide
(Last five completed matches; most recent first)
England LWLWW
South Africa LWLWW
Head to Head In ODI’s: 63
England Won: 28
South Africa Won: 30
Match Timings: 12:00 GMT | 13:00 Local
Umpires – Mike Burns, Richard Kettleborough
TV Umpires – Richard Illingworth
Match Referee – Chris Broad
Reserve Umpire – Martin Saggers
Match number – ODI no. 4434
Maharaj says:
“It looks a little bit dry. Hopefully, it will deteriorate later on. We’ve got three seamers and two spinners. You always want to be contributing to your team and need to be on it, 100% of the time. We’re not cars where you can fill us up with petrol. It does all add up, it does have an effect on you. The schedule is jam-packed and you’re asking a lot of the players, to keep putting in 100% of their efforts every time you walk onto the field for your country. [Virat’s message] He’s going to go down as one of the greatest ever in all formats. I’ve loved it every time I’ve played against him. The energy and commitment he gives I’ve always admired. When you play against guys like that, you understand what it means at the top level. It was nice to hear.
[Advice to administrators?]
I’m not sure if it’s going wrong. Maybe just sit back and understand… don’t expect everyone going to turn out every single time. Teams are looking at their squads and players and asking when they can give them a break. If you want the best product, you want the best players out there giving it their all. I don’t think it looks good. I look at the fact we were playing a Test match and our white-ball team was playing a one-day series at the same time. [Would you take a pay cut for a better schedule?] I walk out there and think about winning… if I can do that, I’m happy. [Farewell game?] It’s amazing. You look at things like this and it’s almost meant to be. I’ve only played two games here for England so it’s a special feeling. When I spoke to Jos and Motty and asked if they wouldn’t mind, they were amazing and just said ‘absolutely’. What an amazing day to have. Durham gave me my first opportunity. Without Durham, I wouldn’t be sitting here talking to you now.”
Ben Stokes speaks to Sky about his retirement:
“The schedule and everything that’s expected of us for me personally feels unsustainable. It was after the first one-day game. It was quite clear – once you start thinking about things, you get advice from other people. One person I spoke to said to me: ‘if there’s any doubt, there’s no doubt’. This England shirt deserves 100% from whoever wears it and I didn’t like the feeling of not being able to contribute in the way I wanted. And the feeling of stopping someone else from progressing in this format for England. When I thought long and hard and realized I couldn’t do that in all three formats… it was made easy knowing that I can’t go out there and give my all.
I always knew
that at some point, I would have to choose one of the white-ball formats to continue with but I didn’t know which one. After the first ODI, it hit me in the face and I spoke to Jos. When I went away and had five minutes to myself, I told him I was just a bit useless. It wasn’t a nice feeling. [T20I vs ODI?] It was never going to be an easy one, but now being the captain of the Test team and how much cricket is coming up, I have to look after my body because I want to play as long as I possibly can. I look at how Jimmy and Broady’s careers have gone since they stopped playing white-ball cricket… I want to play 140, 150 Test matches for England. It’s come earlier than I would have liked but in T20 cricket I bowl 2 or 3 overs here and there. Hopefully when I’m 35, 36 I can look back on this decision and say I’m happy with it.
