Hello and welcome to Telegraph Sport’s coverage of the England v South Africa One Day International series.
England lost the first match but leveled the series with a 118-run win at Old Trafford on Friday.
South Africa’s Heinrich Klaasen admitted to playing “old school tricks” and stopping time in that defeat to England.
“It was just a little bit of old school trickery to see if I just change the momentum and slow the game down a little bit,” he said.
“The English boys didn’t like it. I knew it was coming, so it’s nothing new for me. But for me, in that situation, we weren’t in a good position, so it was just to disrupt the rhythm of the Game a bit, just look what happens. The rain has come down a little bit harder … hopefully the umpires have been able to get us out.”
A minimum of 20 overs per innings is required to constitute a completed match and with 11 gone, Klaasen initiated a pause in play when he complained about a small patch of white at the bottom of the viewing screen to Brian Statham End.
“It frustrated a lot of theirs, so the gimmick kind of worked. Stuff like that doesn’t bother me at all, it’s all fun and games,” he said.
“I hope we can have a cool drink or a beer after the next game and be good mates. If they can keep him on the field, it’s easy for me to keep him on the field. I have no problem with what they say, what they call me, what they do to me. But we keep that on the field.”
England’s Brydon Carse has been ruled out of today’s game after sustaining an injury to his right big toe during the opening ODI at Chester-le Street on Tuesday.
The Durham bowler is the latest in a long line of England fast bowlers to suffer injury layoffs. Jofra Archer, Saqib Mahmood, Olly Stone and Matthew Fisher are out with stress fractures in their backs, while Mark Wood and Chris Woakes are also out through injury.