South Africa v England: second men's T20 international – live!

18th over: South Africa 127-5 (Linde 18, van der Dussen 23) Boundaries! Galore! Linde gets down on one knee and slams Tom Curran through cover for four, then lofts him for six towards the police van parked on the boundary. Fifteen off the over. Two to go.

“Hi Tanya.” “Hello Peter Rowntree!”
“I am sure that there must be quite a few good musicians amongst the current cricketer crop, guitar players and the like. But one who was quite a notable musician from time past was Phil Sharpe who was quite a useful and noted Ukulele player.”

That’s a great call. I could only thing of Henry Olonga for his opera singing.

17th over: South Africa 112-5 (Linde 6, van der Dussen 21) The pavilion at Paarl is low, with a pale-green roof, the stands nicely shaded for the ghosts who currently sit there. Archer slides in, on target, snappy, unhittable. Gives one away at the end with a too-short bouncer. Four off the over and a tasty day’s work by Archer.

16th over: South Africa 108-5 (Linde 5, van der Dussen 19) Jordan’s third over doesn’t give South Africa much respite, apart from a wild wide.

An email! Thank you Simon McMahon, “Afternoon Tanya. Mixed feelings about those pictures from Sydney and Paarl, seeing as it’s currently about 2 degrees above freezing here in (admittedly a dry, sunny) Scotland. Still, international cricket is back and that’s got to be good news wherever you are. Roll on 2021 though, I think a world record beer snake is on the cards next summer …”

As beautiful as that Sydney sky looks, Im not I could cope with 40 degrees in the day and the 30s at night… today was their hottest ever November day. Any snow yet in your part of Scotland?

15th over: South Africa 102-5 (Linde 4, van der Dussen 15) Archer back, and immediately has a two-armed lbw shout against Linde , but England don’t review. Tv replays prove them right. Just five singles from the over and 150 is disappearing over the horizon. There is literally not a cloud at the sky.

14th over: South Africa 97-5 (Linde 2, van der Dussen 12) Things slip-slipping away here for South Africa, with just the bowlers left to have a bat. A much better afternoon for Tom Curran here.

Back of the hand from Tom Curran, Klaasen doesn’t pick it and slumps the ball straight into the safe hands of a bent-kneed Stokes at mid-wicket.

13th over: South Africa 92-4 (Klaasen 6, van der Dussen 10) The empty grass banks makes this look like a club ground, a beautifully inviting one on a warm afternoon. Rashid slides through another over surely enough, apart from one that slips through for five wides.

“The less Adil Rashid spins it, the more effective he is these days @tjaldred,” types Gary Naylor. “ His reputation produces a demon or two in the batsmen’s minds and his control and changes of pace stops any batsman getting set. Like Warne, he’s reached a point where his errors are just variations.”

I’m not sure about that, du Plessis’ stumping spun a yard?

12th over: South Africa 82-4 (Klaasen 4, van der Dussen 7) Dot, dot, one from Jordan ,who hoovers up the balls to an empty stadium. A slow pitch not helping South Africa put their foot on the gas. Klaasen scampers through for a second off the last ball.

11th over: South Africa 77-4 (Klaasen 1, van der Dussen 5) South Africa are tentative, very tentative, now against Rashid as Klaasen survives the hat-trick ball.

Hello John Starbuck!. “I reckon following the OBO whist eating a Sunday lunch might be tricky. I have just finished a cold beef sandwich involving a (home-baked) baguette with Dijon mustard, but then we tend to dine in the evening. On Sunday, we record the Strictly results show and watch it afterwards. Bill Bailey is going very well, isn’t he? See today’s Observer piece on him, where he’s revealed as a useful cricketer in his youth. Are there many cricketers who are also excellent musicians?”

Rashid throws it up and du Plessis canters out of his crease, the ball beats his bat and it is an easy as apple crumble stumping for Buttler.

10th over: South Africa 75-3 (du Plessis 11, van der Dussen 4) Not Stokes’ best – first ball short and du Plessis flicks him over midwicket for four; then a bouncer down legside called wide.

9th over: South Africa 61-3 (du Plessis 5, van der Dussen 0) Rashid mixing it up, one huge googly miscued to short fine leg by Hendricks. Then a nice little reverse paddle, imagine a child on a cobbled street urging along a hoop, for four before Hendricks is deceived.

Has a go at sweeping but done in the flight and that’s Rashid’s 5oth IT20 wicket in his 51st match.

8th over: South Africa 58-2 (du Plessis 5, Hendricks 10) Stokes replaces Jordan as Morgan rings the changes, his various injuries clearly ointmented to fruition. Four singles and two dots will do the trick.

“If the 1st iteration of white ball batting innovation was about new shots and the 2nd about range hitting, I think I’ve glimpsed the 3rd today @tjaldred,” tweets Gary Naylor. “Steven Smith was clearly placing the ball like a golfer managing a course, more than I’ve seen any other batter. Extraordinary”

Looking forward to catching a glimpse of it, we dragged the children out for a muddy November walk, bribing them with various unhealthy items.

7th over: South Africa 54-2 (du Plessis 3, Hendricks 8) Morgan hauls on Rashid immediately after the power play. His slight figure squirrels through the over. Hendricks has a wild one-kneed swing but it falls safe.

6th over: South Africa 50-2 (du Plessis 1, Hendricks 6) Chris Jordan is now the joint highest wicket taker for England in IT20s (alongside Stuart Broad – which is a surprise to me, if no-one else) and England will be broadly satisfied after that power play.

Smashing catch by Tom Curran at mid-on who throws himself skyward and tumbles backwards with the ball at his hand. Not enough whallop by de Kock. A big blow by England.

5th over: South Africa 44-1 (de Kock 26, Hendricks 5) Time for a bit of Tom Curran – seems as good a time as any for someone who had a ropey previous game, with South Africa having to rebuild. It isn’t vintage Curran though, de Kock pans him to backward square, and Hendricks flicks a shortish ball on legside off his pads for four to get off the mark.

4th over: South Africa 33-1 (de Kock 20, Hendricks 0) A bouncer finishes off a prowling over from Archer.

Middle stump yorker! Bavumas tries to flick high to leg but is utterly deceived and trudges slowly away.

3rd over: South Africa 26-0 (de Kock 17, Bavuma 9) The frustration didn’t last long. After surviving a bouncer, de Kock swivel pulls Curran with the wind for four, and again, scoops him for six way over Archer’s head. Then Bavuma, an audacious ramp, rather awkward to be honest, with his head down – but a boundary nonetheless. Things ticking over nicely for South Africa.

2nd over: South Africa 9-0 (de Kock 6, Bavuma 3) Archer at the Nederburg end has the wind behind him. He glides in towards the mountains and a line of green trees, all tipping slightly to the left. Archer already throwing out balls in the high 80s, and one over 90, and finishes with a bounces that passes over Bavuma’s ear. I can taste de Kock’s frustration from here.

1st over: South Africa 7-0 (de Kock 5, Bavuma 2) Sam Curran scurries in from the Old Stables End, Bavuma squirts a single off the first ball, and so it continues for the rest of the over. The breeze is coming in over midwicket, billowing the flags and shifting across the ground. The pitch has been freshly rolled out for afternoon mince pies – a rich brown.

Out swagger Quinton de Kock and Temba Bavuma to attack those big Boland boundaries. Sam Curran has the ball…

Those mountains are really rather hypnotic. Play will start in five minutes – time to grab a coffee. Another coffee. Anyone having Sunday roast?

Looking forward to a speedster battle between Anrich Nortje (top speed 97mph) and Jofra Archer.

South Africa: 1 Quinton de Kock (cpt, wk), 2 Reeza Hendricks, 3 Temba Bavuma, 4 Faf du Plessis, 5 Rassie van der Dussen, 6 Heinrich Klaasen, 7 George Linde, 8 Lungi Ngidi, 9 Kagiso Rabada, 10 Anrich Nortje, 11 Tabraiz Shamsi

England: 1 Jason Roy, 2 Jos Buttler (wk), 3 Dawid Malan, 4 Jonny Bairstow, 5 Ben Stokes, 6 Eoin Morgan (cpt), 7 Sam Curran, 8 Tom Curran, 9 Chris Jordan, 10 Jofra Archer, 11 Adil Rashid

Do drop me a line or two if you’re hankering down with time on your hands. Jonny Bairstow is being interviewed in front of the Drakestein Mountains, hair and beard glorious in its gingerness. Nasser probes : “Where would you rather bat?” YJB plays a straight bat. “I’ll do whatever Morgs wants us to do, there are about six guys who want to open the batting.” Nasser: “Do you ever feel it is always you?” YJB: slightly less straight bat. “Sometimes, but you’ve got to take it as a compliment.”

Sky have just switched from highlights of the last match to Boland Park, where the sky – oh the sky – is the deepest, most brilliant periwinkle blue.

England have won the toss and will bowl. The two captains are standing, socially distanced, in front of two microphones where there is a technical hitch or three. But the important news is: England are unchanged; South Africa have made two changes, with Hendricks and Nortje coming in.

No news yet on the teams, though rumours are that Mark Wood may get a game in place of the out-of-sorts Tom Curran (are he and Sam like weather-house, with only one in form at a time?) And thanks to Ali for this little nugget – Dawid Malan is returning to the scene of his first-class debut in 2006, playing for Boland v Border.

Some Sunday stats:

Elsewhere, New Zealand have defeated West Indies by a crushing 72 runs, thanks to a hundred from Glenn Philips in the second IT20, and a humdinger is coming to a conclusion at Sydney where Virat Kohli (89) and Rahul’s (76) efforts look like they’ll be in vain against Australia’s mammoth 389 – thanks to a hundred from Steve Smith and late order pinging from Glenn Maxwell.

Good morning from Manchester, where November is seeping through the letter box in all its gloom. Luckily, there is sunshine somewhere more southerly, Paarl, where England and South Africa are about to start the second IT20 of a three match competition.

Eoin Morgan called England’s last performance “pretty average”: he doesn’t hand out gongs easily. Bairstow blasted 86 from his new position at No. 4 and Sam Curran slipped easily into Moeen Ali’s No.7 shoes. Jason Roy got a second ball duck in what has been a tricky year for him, and Tom Curran was knocked for his most expensive figures in IT20s, though didn’t have as bad a time as Beuran Hendricks – whose awful last over went for 28. South African left-arm spinner Georg Linde had a quietly impressive debut, dismissing Roy and Malan in the power play.

England will fancy another win; South Africa, who have lost four of their last 5 IT20s, need someone other than du Plessis to sprinkle some batting stardust.