England captain Jos Buttler has admitted that Quinton De Kock's carnage in the powerplay made the difference in this close contest.

De Kock
South Africa beat England by only 7 runs on Friday (21st June) at Daren Sammy National Cricket Stadium, St Lucia. Quinton De Kock's blistering 65 and David Miller's quick-fire 43 helped South Africa post 163 on the board. In reply, Kagiso Rabada and Keshav Maharaj showed their prowess with the ball to hand South Africa a narrow 7 run victory.

"I'd say in the powerplay, actually," Buttler said, at the post-match presentation. "Quinton de Kock came out with a lot of intensity in that powerplay, and we couldn't quite match that. I think we were probably 20 behind them after six overs. The wicket slowed up and we brought it back really well, we were quite happy chasing 160 [164]. But yeah, they bowled well in the powerplay and Quinton de Kock's innings was probably the difference."

In pursuit of 164, England were reeling at 61-4 but Liam Livingstone and Harry Brook took them out of the hole by stitching a game changing 78 run stand. England needed 25 off the last 3 overs to win. But Kagiso Rabada, Marco Jansen and Anrich Nortje hold their nerve to seal the nervy 7 run victory.

"I think it's still a good wicket," Buttler said. "A little bit slower than we probably expected, but as I said, we were quite happy chasing 160. We came back really well with the ball after how well Quinny played in the powerplay. I thought Brook and Livingstone had a fantastic partnership there to take us so close and at one stage [we were] looking like favourites but it's never quite as simple as that in T20 cricket and credit to South Africa for closing it out.

"I thought we were really good [with the ball]. As I said, the powerplay was the best time to bat, and I think Quinny recognised that and took some calculated risks. But yeah, the bowling performance, to come back and restrict a really powerful line-up to what I thought was a par score was a great effort."