England's Jonny Bairstow starred in his team’s thrilling 5-wicket win over South Africa in the first T20I of the three-match series on Friday, November 27, in Cape Town.
Bairstow produced the Player of the Match performance despite coming in to bat at the unfamiliar position of No.4, where he had batted just three times before Friday’s game in T20I cricket. He had to bat in the middle-order in order to accommodate Jos Buttler at the top of the order.
Well, the Newlands surface was not the typical T20I belter, assisting some turn for South Africa's spinners, but Bairstow wasn’t fazed with it nor with his batting position as the right-hander played blistering innings of unbeaten 86 from 48 balls to rescue England from the perilous position of 34-3 and took them to victory over the Proteas side.
In his match-winning knock, the 31-year-old hit 9 boundaries and 4 sixes as well as stitched an 83-run stand with No. 5 Ben Stokes to take England past the finish line with 4 balls to spare and hand them a 1-0 lead in the three-match T20I series against South Africa.
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After his Player of the Match show, the Englishman said he enjoyed his new role in the team while insisting the tourists were always in the game despite their plan initially backfiring in Cape Town.
Bairstow said at the post-match presentation on Friday: “It is something you have to enjoy, having played different formats of the game, whether you are opening or batting at number six, you learn to craft your innings in different ways.”
The keeper further added, “Different surfaces will change our (batting) order, but we are fortunate to have people who can come in and play different positions. The rate went up 13 (runs per over) at one point, but if you look at our lineup, we always feel we are in the game.”
On his knock on the sticky surface where others struggled to bat on, Bairstow noted: “The ball bowled into the pitch was tricky; they were bowling a lot of slower balls.”
He signed off by saying, “You have to try and maintain your weight forward, which is hard when it is pitched halfway down and they are bowling at 140 clicks (km per hour).”
(With Reuters Inputs)
