England’s Jos Buttler smashed a scintillating 32 off 10 balls in what captain Stuart Broad described as a match-winning knock in his side’s 28-run triumph over South Africa in their third and final Twenty20 clash at Edgbaston.
With both sides now heading to Sri Lanka for the 2012 T20 World Cup, the result is a major boost for England, who managed to tie the series 1-1.
The hosts had been battling in the first innings with Craig Kieswetter (50 off 32) carrying the innings while the likes of Eoin Morgan and Luke Wright battled, before Buttler late smash gave England an excellent total of 5/118 off 11 overs.
The Proteas battled hard in reply but never looked likely to reach the total with Graeme Swann (2/24) taking the important wicket of Hashim Amla out for 36 off 27, as they fell short at 5/90 off 11 overs.
“We knew we had hitters to come in and Jos played a game-changing innings,” Broad said.
“We’ve picked guys who can change the momentum of Twenty20 games. We’ve seen this fella do it for Somerset time and time again so to see him do it in an England shirt was brilliant. It pretty much won us the game.
“Going into the final three overs it looked like we needed a push, Jos got 32 in 10 balls and that would change most games. It was awesome to see and a great confidence for the squad going to Sri Lanka. To get on that flight with a win under our belt is brilliant.”
Meanwhile, South Africa skipper AB de Villiers had no complaints after another rain-affected game, acknowledging they may face similar scenarios at the T20 World Cup in Sri Lanka.
“I hear there is quite a bit of rain around in Sri Lanka at the moment and we might get a few rain-delayed games and it might cost you the World Cup,” he said.
“We have played a couple now, one good, one not so good, so we can take some learning out of that. There’s no room for error that’s for sure. We’ve had a taste for it now and will be better prepared now.”