England vs South Africa, 2nd ODI - Live Cricket Score, Commentary

That's series done as South Africa have won it. The last ODI of this series takes place on 7th (Sunday). We will be there to bring it to you. Do join us then. For now it's bye bye.

Temba Bavuma: Very proud. Brought some pride and enjoyment to the people back home and also the ones who came in here enjoyed a good game. More than competitive score, definitely would have taken that when we were three-down. Matthew Breetzke continuing his good run and well supported by Stubbs, and young Brevis doing what he does. We did not start well with the ball, Kesh showing why he is number one and our fielding was much better. Bosch has the ability to bowl in the powerplay but also outside of the powerplay. He will be proud of his performance and gave us a lot of control, which we were looking for particularly in the middle overs. We don't have a lot of options at the moment, lots of them are injured. We will see what the conditions are there (Southampton) and we will put out our best team there.

Harry Brook: They probably got 10-15 too many, to get within one blow of that score was a great effort. (Bethell at 4) Was just to unsettle their spinners. They had two left-arm spinners, tried to keep the right and left hand combo. We were quite unlucky in the powerplay, lots of plays and misses, couple of LBWs did not go our way. (plans for next game) Minute improvements, was a great effort from the lads today.

Matthew Breetzke | Player of the Match: Very happy. Me and Stubbo found it to be quite tricky. Thought 280 was a good total, the longer we batted we felt better. Bit of old-school cricket. Bit of batsmanship, we read the conditions, wanted to build partnerships and score at the back end. (on his run with the bat in this format) I don't know to be honest, it's been really good so far and hope it continues.

Stats by Shashikant Singh

England have won just 1 out of 6 bilateral ODI series post the 2023 World Cup. They have a win percentage of 31.8 in this period (won 7 out of 22 ODIs). Only Bangladesh and Zimbabwe from full member teams have a lower win percentage than England since CWC 2023.

England's last four ODIs vs South Africa
Lost by 229 runs (Mumbai 2023)
Lost with 125 balls to spare (Karachi 2025)
Lost with 175 balls to spare (Leeds 2025)
Lost by 5 runs (Lord’s 2025)

5-run victory is the second closest win margin for South Africa against England in ODIs after the 1-run win in Cape Town in 2000

This is the first ODI series win for South Africa in England since 1998. The last time England won a bilateral ODI series against South Africa was in 2017.

21:28 Local Time, 20:28 GMT, 01:58 IST: A close game and South Africa hang on to win. No big celebrations from the South Africans. They just calmly get on with things. Burger got Jamie Smith first-ball of the innings but Root came out with intent and even though Duckett struggled, the former's run-scoring kept England in the chase. Then Bethell played a blinder of an innings taking down Markram in the process. Boundaries flowed in that Root-Bethell stand. Both went in quick succession and then contributions came from Brook, Buttler and Jacks. But just when someone needed to stay till the end and take their side home, they fell with Jacks' wicket almost sealing the game for South Africa. Still Jofra Archer tried his best and nearly pulled off a late heist but Muthusamy held his nerve in the final over to eke out a win for his side. Much better batting performance from England today but they still fall short. Stay tuned for the post-match presentation....

Muthusamy to Jofra Archer, 1 run, Jofra Archer can't do it. South Africa win the series. Jofra Archer comes down the track and this is a flat good length delivery around off, thick inside-edge on the hoick and it dribbles to short fine, just one and South Africa win by 5 runs

6 will bring a Super Over.

Muthusamy to Jofra Archer, FOUR, Jofra Archer keeps his side just about alive. Flatter and good length outside off, Jofra Archer smashes the reverse-hit wide of both backward point and short third man

Muthusamy to Jofra Archer, no run, good length outside off, Jofra Archer hammers it off the back foot to deep extra-cover and they don't take one

11 off 3, Muthusamy with a chat to Bavuma.

Muthusamy to Jofra Archer, FOUR, what a strike that is. Jofra Archer turns into a left-hander's stance. This is well outside the leg-stump, Archer thwacks it to sweeper cover and it's one bounce over the ropes. Nearly all the way

Muthusamy to Jofra Archer, no run, tossed up full outside off, spins away, Jofra Archer gets forward to mow to leg and misses

Muthusamy to Saqib Mahmood, 1 run, flat good length outside off, Saqib Mahmood goes on the back foot and hammers the pull, past Muthusamy to his right and brings Jofra Archer back on strike

Senuran Muthusamy [7.0-0-51-1] is back into the attack

16 off the last over. Sen Muthusamy to bowl it. But Jofra Archer is not on strike. South Africa have been slow - so they have to bring an extra fielder in.