huhhello and welcome to Telegraph Sport’s coverage of England’s one-day international series decider against South Africa.
England lost the first game, but tied the series on Friday with a 118-run win at Old Trafford.
South African Heinrich Klaasen confessed to playing “old school tricks” and delaying time in that defeat to England.
“It was just a bit of old-fashioned tricks to see if I could change the momentum and slow down the game a little bit,” he said.
“The English guys didn’t like it. I knew it was coming, so it’s nothing new to me. But for me, in that situation, we weren’t in a great position, so it was just about the rhythm of the match to disturb.” contest a little, see what happens. The rain came down a little harder… hopefully the umpires could have eliminated us.”
A minimum of 20 overs per innings are required to form a completed game and with 11 up, Klaasen started a stoppage when he complained about a small white spot at the bottom of the viewing screen at Brian Statham End.
“It frustrated a lot of their guys, so the trick worked a bit. That kind of stuff doesn’t bother me at all, it’s nice and fun,” he said.
“Hopefully after the next game we can have a cool drink or a beer and be good friends. If they can keep it on the pitch it will be easy for me to keep it on the pitch. I have no problem with what they say , what they call me, what they do to me. But let’s keep that on the field.”
England’s Brydon Carse has been banned from today’s game after suffering an injury to his right big toe during the opening game at Chester-le Street on Tuesday.
The Durham bowler is the latest in a long line of English fast bowlers to suffer injuries. Jofra Archer, Saqib Mahmood, Olly Stone and Matthew Fisher are all out with back stress fractures, while Mark Wood and Chris Woakes are also out with injury.