Yorkshire CCC’s Dawid Malan proves he has the power to thrill for England

Eoin Morgan’s side moved to No 1 in the world ramkings after sealing a 3-0 triumph, led there by a sensational 47-ball blast from Malan along with a not insignificant unbeaten 67 from Jos Buttler.

At Newlands, England were presented with their stiffest challenge yet when asked to reach 192 on a used pitch, but they won by nine wickets thanks to a remarkable stand of 167 between Malan and Buttler from just 85 balls.

Having shone previously in the win at Paarl, Malan sealed his second successive man-of-the-match award by smashing five sixes and 11 fours.

But he left himself short of raising his bat by running a quick single to win the game, denying himself an inevitable ton in the process.

A year ago, Malan scored his only T20 hundred but was rebuked by captain Eoin Morgan for not running off the last ball of the innings, a factor that might have featured as he declined to put his own milestone to the fore.

“I don’t know how it was going to go down if I turned down a single,” he joked in the post-match presentation. “I knew I had to hit two sixes to win the game and get a hundred, I got a six and a four so I guess I didn’t calculate that too well. I need to go back to maths class.”

Malan departs South Africa having not made the cut for the forthcoming one-day series, despite hitting 173 runs at an average of 86.50 and a strike-rate of 161.68.

“It was so nice to get some momentum. I know I have the power, it’s just putting it into place at the right times to win games of cricket,” he added.

Buttler was quick to praise his batting partner, but wasn’t sure he believed his claims of not knowing how many runs he was on when hitting the winning single.

“It’s a big scoreboard out there saying how many you have,” said Buttler. “I’m sure he must have glanced at it at some point. I usually know how many I’m on.

“But he played a fantastic knock. His consistency has been unbelievable since he came back into the side. It was just about winning the game I think, he was deserving of a hundred but I’m pretty sure he’ll be happy with his 99 not out.”

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