5.55pm Vish suspects that Jamie Overton may be the man missing out from the Cardiff line-up, but it’s hard to tell for sure. Everyone else seems to be having a bowl. All will be revealed one way or another in the coming minutes… the toss is looming.
5.46pm We’re about 15 minutes from the toss. England won the last one, but a fat lot of good that did them… wonder what’s in store tonight?
Tim: “It seems like England are viewing this series with the World Cup in mind more than South Africa, given that England picked 2 frontline spinners on Wednesday and South Africa none”
Vas: “Nice to see jofra playing. Adds excitement to the proceeding” … I’ll say!
Sankalp: “Speaking of ‘touch wood’, when will England players be able to touch Wood in celebratory high fives. What’s the update on him wrt to Ashes?” A surfeit of caution, I believe… but he’s still on track…
5.35pm “Jofra is marking out his run-up,” says Vish. This is not a drill…
5.25pm Talking of Keshav Maharaj, he’s just signed for newly-promoted Leicestershire in the County Championship next season. That’s a bit of a coup… (presumably his groin tweak will have healed up by then).
Hugh Jass: “England need a win here to keep the series alive, that’s something we all know. But It’s not like an in form South Africa team will let them take it off a platter. England will need to play some fantastic cricket here.” That’s a curious surname…
5.11pm With the prospect of drier conditions, we can probably expect Jofra Archer to get an outing tonight, seeing as he was named in England’s original XI in Cardiff, until the rain created conditions in which Eoin Morgan said he wouldn’t let his horse loose … however, in Archer’s absence, Luke Wood seized his limited chance with a spirited two-wicket display. Vish assessed his impact after that outing.
Of course, it wasn’t enough to prevent South Africa’s power-packed line-up from seizing the rain-reduced game. Here’s how Firdose Moonda assessed the match.
5pm Some early news from the South Africa camp. Keshav Maharaj, who tweaked his left groin ahead of the Cardiff match, has been ruled out of the rest of the series. Bjorn Fortuin has been named as his replacement, which – apart from anything else – is bad news for Hampshire, who look set to lose him from their T20 Finals Day squad at Edgbaston tomorrow. In mitigation, they aren’t the worst-hit of the counties in what has been described as a ‘ludicrous’ piece of scheduling. Lancashire alone have four England players missing, and neither of their overseas players either.
4.56pm Good evening all, and welcome to ESPNcricinfo’s ball-by-ball coverage of the second T20I between England and South Africa at Old Trafford. After the soggy “shambles” down at Cardiff on Wednesday night, Manchester is an inauspicious venue for the second match of this three-game series. But Vithushan Ehantharajah has made it up north and reports blue skies away to the north, and despite an inevitable smattering on the radar, we should be in for a full contest (touch wood)…
