Toss – England won the toss and chose to bowl first vs South Africa
Harry Brook decided to chase in a nine-over shoot-out in the first T20I against South Africa, which will begin two hours and 20 minutes after the scheduled start of play at 6.30pm.
Rain throughout the day in Cardiff initially delayed the toss, but abated for long enough for the clouds to clear and a clean-up operation to begin and then returned half an hour before the first inspection was due. The officials inspected again at 8pm and announced that play would begin 50 minutes later. Under the playing conditions, four bowlers will be allowed a maximum of two overs each and the Powerplay will be clipped at 2.4 overs.
England named an XI on the eve of the match but changed it before the toss. Left-arm seamer Luke Wood replaced Jofra Archer, who was not risked given the wet conditions and shortened match. Asked why England made the switch, Brook said they felt Wood could take advantage of swinging conditions upfront.
South Africa showed none of the same caution. They brought back Kagiso Rabada, who missed the ODIs with ankle inflammation; Marco Jansen, who is playing his first match since the World Test Championship (WTC) final where he broke his thumb; and Lizaad Williams, who is playing after recovering from knee surgery. With Kwena Maphaka and Corbin Bosch also in the XI, South Africa have plenty of pace and no specialist spinner.
They are also without two certain starters who were ruled out of the series altogether. David Miller was scratched off the squad list on the eve of the match after sustaining a hamstring strain during the final week of the Hundred while Lungi Ngidi was ruled out on match day, with the same injury.
Ngidi will return home, facing a race against time to be fit for South Africa’s next assignment – the start of their World Test Championship title defence in Pakistan which kicks off on October 12. Left-arm seamer Nandre Burger has been added to the squad in Ngidi’s place but is only available from Friday’s second T20I in Manchester.
England: 1 Phil Salt, 2 Jos Buttler (wk), 3 Jacob Bethell, 4 Harry Brook (capt), 5 Sam Curran, 6 Tom Banton, 7 Will Jacks, 8 Jamie Overton, 9 Liam Dawson, 10 Jofra Archer, 11 Adil Rashid
South Africa: 1 Aiden Markram (capt), 2 Ryan Rickleton (wk), 3 Lhuan-dre Pretorius, 4 Dewald Brevis, 5 Tristan Stubbs, 6 Donovan Ferreira, 7 Marco Jansen, 8 Corbin Bosch, 9 Kwena Maphaka, 10 Kagiso Rabada, 11 Lizaad Williams