England vs South Africa LIVE: Cricket World Cup 2023 reaction as Jos Buttler’s men lose by 229 runs
Follow all the live coverage from Mumbai as defending champions England take on South Africa
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Your support makes all the difference.England suffered another humiliating 229-run defeat against South Africa at Mumbai, which will be hard to come back from and keep any chances of Cricket World Cup semi-final qualification alive.
In Delhi, Jos Buttler’s side were left stunned and contemplating the nature of their 69-run defeat to Afghanistan, who only recently acquired full-ICC member status, and they fell apart again against the Proteas.
The cracks that had been evident in their first two matches became gaping holes, Henrich Klaasen smashed 109 from 67 to take South Africa to just short of 399, as England struggled to take wickets but it was the batting where the match became a disaster.
South Africa ripped through the top order, and other than a prolific record-breaking partnership for the ninth wicket between Gus Atkinson and Mark Wood, the next-highest score was Harry Brook’s 17.
It was England’s heaviest defeat in ODI cricket. It is worth remembering that England lost three matches and still qualified for the semi-finals when they went on to win the competition back in 2019, but with India and Australia still to play, it is looking like a difficult task.
Here’s everything you need to know about the cricket World Cup fixture and get the latest odds here.
England 153-8 (21) Atkinson 35, Wood 26, Rabada 1-38 (6)
Atkinson dropped! There were three guys under it and it was dropped and struck Andile on the arm.
The next one is hit over the top by Atkinson. Rabada slows it up and has another four, England are closing in on 150...
This partnership is by far the biggest of the innings and has passed 50 and England have hit 150!
England 135-8 (20) Atkinson 17, Wood 26, Maharaj 0-8 (1)
Atkinson reverse-sweeps for a single! And Mark Wood follows that up with another massive six, straight out of the middle and his third six so far.
England 125-8 (19) Atkinson 16, Wood 17, Ngidi 2-26 (5)
Ngidi fires one down leg side and England are creeping towards 120 runs here...
Atkinson drives down the ground for four and this will be the 120. At one point it looked like they could be bowled out for 80 so I guess every small run counts.
De Kock chases after a catch and spills it, Atkinson and England have another run.
England 118-8 (18), Wood 16, Atkinson 11, Jansen 2-35 (5)
Wood goes for a big hit down the ground and why not? Any run is something.
The fast bowler is off the mark with that four, and follows it up with a six that just dropped over the rope and out of the reach of the sprinting Aiden Markram.
After that Wood was dropped by Hendricks, pulled straight at him and just put down, that might be the first and only stroke of luck England have had this innings.
And he follows it up with another six.
England 101-8 (17) Atkinson 10, Wood 0, Ngidi 2-19 (4)
England are just hanging on here and it feels like only a matter of time, this could be the heaviest defeat ever in a World Cup, and from the defending champions as well.
Wicket! Willey out for 12, England 100-8
Willey launches a six to bring up the 100, every run will help the net run rate here and that was a massive 91-metre six!
But he is caught next ball by a stunning diving catch from Rabada at mid off.
Splice of the bat, Willey tries to hit again and Rabada has run and dived to get that.
England 94-7 (16) Willey 6, Atkinson 10, Coetzee 3-35 (4)
Atkinson hits a first-ball four, he can bat a bit even though is in the England team as a bowler.
The big question for the meantime is can England get over 100.
Atkinson has 10 from the over.
Wicket! Rashid out for 10, England 84-7
Rashid chases a wide one and it’s caught by Hendricks at slip, it flew and it was a good catch.
England 84-6 (15), Willey 6, Rashid 10, Rabada 1-20 (5)
There will be time in the future for discussions over net run rate or England’s chances, but this has been utterly humbling.
Questions will be raised over whether having won the toss England should have chosen to bat, what went wrong etc...but all the two out in the middle can do is bat as long as they can and try and make this as respectable a defeat as possible.
England 81-6 (14) Willey 6, Rashid 7, Coetzee 2-25 (3)
Nasser Hussain insists England have to keep fighting, and there is a nice four from Rashid in that over, but it is starting to become impossible to see any way out of this now.
England have a long way to go to prevent this being their heaviest ODI defeat and it is impossible to see a way for them to win this.
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