SECOND ONE-DAY INTERNATIONAL, Trent Bridge: England 85 (14.1 ovs) bt South Africa 83 (23 ovs) by 10 wickets
By Jamie Lillywhite
England took Pietersen begins England tenure ...
South Ossetian rebels order mobilisation ...
Senior powers to discuss how to stabilise oil costs ... a commanding 2-0 lead in the five-match one-day international series with an emphatic 10-wicket win against South Africa at Trent Bridge.
Stuart Broad took his maiden one-day five-wicket haul, destroying the top order with a spell of 4-9 in 16 balls.
Matt Prior took six catches, equalling Alec Stewart's England one-day record, and Andrew Flintoff ended the innings in the 23rd over with his third wicket.
Prior added 45 as England won before the scheduled mid-innings interval.
It was South Africa's shortest one-day innings and only the second time in 406 matches they have been bowled out for less than 100, only 69 against Australia at Sydney in 1993 faring worse.
Graeme Smith chose to bat with the theory that batting under lights against the new ball would be more difficult, but the match was over before the switches were pressed.
There are sure to be questions about whether it was reckless batting, inspired bowling or a sporting surface.
There were elements of each, but England will be very happy with another superb performance under the new captaincy of Kevin Pietersen, his third successive victory since taking charge.
From the moment Smith pushed a kamikaze single in the first over of the match and was only reprieved by Ian Bell missing the target from around five yards, the South African innings looked in trouble.
Broad, his boyish face sporting some Andrew Flintoff-like whiskers, took the first wicket in the fourth over when Herschelle Gibbs tried to step down the wicket and got an inside edge to Prior.
Flintoff and James Anderson were quicker, both bowling well in excess of 90mph, but Broad, in the high 80's bowled a consistently probing back of a length line.
He was superbly supported in the field, Prior's catch to dismiss Smith, when he took off to his left and snared the edge one-handed in front of first slip, a memorable moment for the Sussex man, who was out of the England set-up at the start of the season.
One sight the South Africans did not want to see at 36-4 after 10 overs was that of Flintoff charging in.
Flintoff was the perfect candidate to maintain the pressure and his typically accurate hostility quickly brought him two wickets.
The surreal situation was summed up by number nine Andre Nel, who swiped three fours in four balls off Broad and promptly became the highest scorer of the innings.
Harmison is unlikely to have ever begun a spell with the opposition at 68-7 after 21 overs, but he soon joined in the fun by taking two wickets in the solitary over he was required to bowl.
Nel's brief flurry of runs when he skied Harmison's first delivery and Luke Wright took a well-judged catch at mid-wicket.
Flintoff's fine yorker gave him a third wicket and there was an air of stunned silence as England began their reply an hour before the scheduled mid-innings interval.
The misery continued for the tourists, any top edges or mis-timed strokes evading the fielders, and subdued bowlers firing a succession of wides and no-balls.
Prior's fine match continued, however, with some bold strokeplay, launching Makhaya Ntini straight down the ground for six.
The gloveman pulled a boundary for the winning runs off the first ball of the 15th over, barely three hours after the start.
(BBC)
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