1st T20I
England 134/8 (20/20 ov)
South Africa 135/7 (20/20 ov)
South Africa won by 3 wickets (with 0 balls remaining)
Chris Morris scored 14 runs off the final over and two off the last ball, as Reece Topley failed to gather a return at the stumps and complete a run out that would have forced a Super Over, to give South Africa a nail-biting victory at Newlands.
Morris rescued South Africa from a middle-order meltdown in which they tumbled from 98 for 3 in the 16th over to 119 for 7 in the 19th and made hard work of what was shaping as a more routine chase.
Chris Jordan and Moeen Ali shared five wickets, while Ben Stokes also produced an impressive four overs, to almost overshadow Imran Tahir, who had taken 4 for 21 to restrict England to 134 for 8. Tahir's effort, which equalled his career-best, slammed the brakes on England after a brisk start. As it turned out, England did not need too many more runs and once again it was fielding errors which meant they finished on the losing side.
England may not have thought it would get that close after they stuttered through a significant part of their innings. Their run rate was less than six an over for 17 overs after they plundered 36 off the first three and threatened to post a towering total.
Alex Hales and Jason Roy were severe on Kagiso Rabada and Kyle Abbott upfront but their aggression did not last. Roy pulled a Rabada slower ball to Hashim Amla at midwicket and Hales top-edged a sweep in Tahir's first over, which almost brought a nasty outfield collision, to start the slide.
England lost 5 for 29 in the next six overs and South Africa took control. While David Wiese and Morris squeezed, Tahir attacked. He beat Stokes with a googly to have him stumped and had Eoin Morgan and Moeen caught off successive deliveries to stand on the cusp of a hat-trick. He almost got it with a googly to Jordan that missed the top of the stumps.
Even though he didn't, the damage was done. England only had Jos Buttler but he and the lower order could not cut loose to leave South Africa fancying their chances at the halfway stage.
South Africa approached the chase watchfully and, with the top-heavy nature of their line-up, they needed to. Amla, who has had his problems against left-armers, offered a chance when he slashed at a Topley delivery and got and edge but Buttler could not hold on.
England did not have to wait long, though. Three balls later AB de Villiers was caught on the fine-leg boundary and in the next over Amla was out when David Willey got down well to a low catch at mid-on. South Africa lost the bulk of their experience and still needed 100 runs but had 15 overs to get them.
Faf du Plessis and JP Duminy shared in the highest partnership of the match - 41 for the third wicket - but they did not always look at ease. Duminy survived an lbw shout off Jordan and neither of them found the boundary easily. The required run rate increased to almost eight an over and the pressure told.
Adil Rashid proved particularly difficult to get away and Duminy succumbed. He was caught at long-on in an attempt to go big and England began to strangle. They pushed the required run rate towards nine and then du Plessis tried to accelerate but picked out long-on too.
South Africa needed 37 runs off the last four overs with only the finishers left. David Miller's lack of game time and the two allrounders' inexperience gave England the advantage especially after Jordan bowled another boundary-less over.
Rilee Rossouw was next to go, top-edging a sweep, but Miller showed the aggression of old when he took 11 runs off three balls from Moeen Ali to leave South Africa needing 21 off two overs.
Jordan bowled the perfect penultimate over. He had Miller caught at long-on and bowled Wiese with a full delivery to end his four overs with career-best T20 figures of 3 for 23 and leave Topley with 15 to defend off the final over. The only problem was that he had to do it against Morris.
As he did in the Wanderers ODI a week ago, Morris showed big-match temperament and after Abbott gave him the strike he finished the job. A four off a low full toss, a six off another and a two ran as though his life depended on it meant South Africa proved their potential under pressure and England were left to wonder what could have been if Topley had pulled off the run-out.
2nd T20I
South Africa 172 for 1 (de Villiers 71, Amla 69*) beat England 171 (Buttler 54, Abbott 3-26) by nine wickets
An England implosion that saw their last seven wickets go down for just 14 runs and a sublime performance with the bat, combining the power of AB de Villiers with the elegance of Hashim Amla, saw South Africa seal the two-match T20 series in emphatic fashion. Victory meant South Africa won both limited-overs series against England, after losing the Test series, and ended the tour in fine style.
On a Wanderers pitch packed with runs, England needed a total in excess of 200 but could not get away at the start of the innings, rebuilt with a 96-run stand between Eoin Morgan and Jos Buttler and then collapsed. De Villiers and Amla then made England wonder if 300 would have been enough when they polished off 100 runs inside seven overs to set South Africa up for a dominant win.
Unlike in the previous matches on this tour, South Africa did not allow England to get away from them early on. Kagiso Rabada and Kyle Abbott kept a lid on things by bowling back of a length. Rabada could have had Jason Roy out first ball but JP Duminy spilled the catch at short cover. Ten balls later, Rabada had his man when Roy tried to smack him down the ground, was beaten for pace and his off stump was uprooted.
South Africa continued with their short-ball strategy but it did not work as well against Joe Root. He scored the first boundary of the innings off one of those deliveries and went on to punish Abbott, Rabada, Chris Morris and then David Wiese, who was dealt with even more severely once Root was dismissed.
The introduction of spin allowed South Africa to pull things back when Imran Tahir had Root caught on the extra cover boundary and he was on hand to run out Alex Hales when Eoin Morgan seemed to commit a second as Morris raced in from deep midwicket. By the time he sent Hales back it was too late.
With two new batsmen at the crease, England needed time to rebuild and once Buttler had settled, he took it on himself to accelerate. He found runs with power and placement, particularly off Wiese, who missed the yorker and tried the slower ball without success. Morgan joined the party and Wiese's second and third overs cost 30 runs.
He was replaced by Duminy, who fared no better. Buttler targeted Duminy, Morgan looked more confident than he has throughout the series and was reading Morris well. With four overs to go, England, on 150, were well on track for a big score.
Then, their fortunes changed. Buttler was caught inches off the turf by Faf du Plessis and Morgan was run out at the non-striker's end in successive balls. England had two new men in again and their luck got no better. Stokes was caught off a ball that he should have hit into the ground but which popped up to Morris, Duminy made up for his earlier blunder with a good catch on the boundary to remove Moeen Ali and England were in free fall.
Abbott was rewarded for accuracy with two wickets in two balls at the death and England were bowled out without completing their 20 overs. Rabada took the final wicket in similar fashion to the way he claimed the first when he removed Adil Rashid's off stump.
At altitude and with a fast outfield, South Africa would have known the target was chaseable but may not have expected to get it as quickly as they did. De Villiers was in no mood to stick around. The first ball he faced found the boundary and that was just the beginning.
He sent the ball into the stands, the grass embankment and even the parking lot in a display of innovative hitting that the Wanderers has seen before. The ground was the venue of de Villiers' fastest ODI century and has now also witnessed his fastest fifty in the shortest format. It came off 21-balls.
By then Amla, who only had eight runs when de Villiers had 40, had just about caught up. In entirely contrasting style, Amla added 32 runs off nine balls with touches of finesse, like his flick through fine leg, and excellent timing.
South Africa's hundred was up in the seventh over and none of the England bowlers was spared. The attack were all guilty of missing their lines, often bowling too full and on the pads and were overawed by the assault they came under. De Villiers found the boundary six times and went over it another six but finally miscued Rashid to long-off to give England some relief but not much hope.
Amla got to fifty soon after, off 27 balls and batted through. He had his highest T20 international score by the time du Plessis finished off to give South Africa victory with 5.2 overs to spare.
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