South Africa took a 1-0 series lead in the opening T20I against England in Cardiff last night, winning a contest which lasted just 77 balls.
It was inevitable the match would be reduced from early in the day, with rain sweeping through the country, disrupting a key Championship round and soaking the Sophia Gardens outfield. An initial pitch inspection announced for 7:30pm was quickly pushed back to 8pm, an hour and a half after the scheduled start of play. Even when a nine-over game was agreed to start at ten to nine, the outfield was still slick with water, so much so England decided it was too treacherous to risk Jofra Archer on.
Perhaps there’s a lesson there in announcing lineups in the days before a match, as England have done recently across formats. Once any change is necessary to that XI for whatever reason, it becomes a story which could have been avoided. The story here was that England were happier to risk Luke Wood injuring himself in the field and spend the next couple of months on the sidelines than they were Archer.
It’s a cold line of thought, but also a reasonable one. Since his 2019 debut, Archer has spent more time off the field rehabbing than he has on it, and it took four long years to nurse him to the point of Test match inclusion again. Having successfully managed him to within touching distance of the Ashes tour, betting all of their work against a T10 thrash on a wet Wednesday night in Cardiff would have been nonsensical.
But, beyond Wood being the fall guy dropped into the XI, there’s an argument that if it’s too dangerous for one then it must be too dangerous for all. Archer’s physical pain wouldn’t have been greater than anyone else’s if he had he skidded into the advertising boards. The real difference that sets Archer apart is that the stakes are higher, and the investment the ECB have made in him is unmatched.
South Africa claim a 1-0 series lead after winning a rain-shortened T20I in Cardiff 🌧
— Wisden (@WisdenCricket) September 10, 2025
SCORECARD: https://t.co/ue4JypU2NH#ENGvSA #EnglandCricket pic.twitter.com/MEcYGGyubG
Given that Kagiso Rabada, Marco Jansen and Corbin Bosch, all of whom have had significant injury problems, deemed conditions safe enough to bowl at full tilt, the greater truth is that England probably wish they didn’t have to send players out at all. Once the India series was done, Brendon McCullum’s primary job was to shepherd all of his key players through to the Ashes, and remove or lessen any risks to that as much as possible. That’s resulted in Jacob Bethell captaining in the T20Is in Ireland, and Ben Duckett and Jamie Smith’s T20I time before next year’s World Cup being cut in half. England want to win back their status as white-ball world beaters, and a good showing at the T20 World Cup in six months time would take some heat off them in that regard. But, they want to have their best crack at winning the Ashes more.
For those on the field, the match was a frenzied hitathon. Aiden Markram heaved over the notorious short straight boundaries at Sophia Gardens to put as many on the board as possible before the rain swept in again. Fielders trod gingerly, unable to fully commit to their efforts on an outfield still digesting the day’s downpours, which returned just as the eighth over of the night began. While an argument could have been made for the first part of the game that conditions were not ideal but not unmanageable, and that cricket often takes an unpractical approach to playing in conditions any less than perfect, watching Jansen getting drenched as he ran out to replace Tristan Stubbs should have been enough to send them all back. Instead, two more balls were sent down in front of a crowd of umbrellas before the umpires conceded a temporary defeat.
When they did come back on, England had five overs to chase down 69, giving them a required run-rate of almost 14 from the off. As much as reacting to a rapidly evolving game, the kind that could happen in the semi-final of a global tournament, is good practice, the farcical element overshadowed it. Harry Brook played a tortuous four-ball knock, in which he attempted to scoop his first ball, missed an upper-cut off his second and was out to a leading edge soon after. While every England wicket fell in search of a boundary, each and every one of those shots was absolutely necessary in such a shortened chase.
The consensus from both captains after the game was that very little could be taken from their evening’s work. “It was a bit of a shambles really, wasn’t it,” was Brook’s assessment, while Aiden Markram’s adjective of choice was “madness”. Bilateral T20I series often have little riding on them, especially with T20 World Cups now expanded to reduce the jeopardy of missing automatic qualification. While there’s value in ensuring punters and TV companies get their money’s worth, there must be a line drawn between those priorities and not downgrading the quality of an international game so much as to essentially render it meaningless.
But, on the bright side, that game has set-up a must-win blockbuster in Manchester tomorrow, for which the forecast looks… well, at least Archer’s saving on his laundry bill.
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