England thrashed South Africa in the third and final ODI of the series by 342 runs on Sunday (September 7) at the Rose Bowl in Southampton. The hosts had already lost the series but they smashed runs for fun, posting 414 runs in their 50 overs and then Jofra Archer breathed fire in his opening spell. He picked up four wickets and was well assisted by Brydon Carse and Adil Rashid as South Africa were skittled for just 72 runs in the 21st over of the innings.
Archer was almost unplayable in his opening spell of seven overs and returned with figures of 7-3-10-4. He came back for two overs later but couldn't pick up a wicket and finished with figures of 4/18 in nine overs. It was arguably the best he had bowled in the entire summer, but Archer believes he bowled much better in the first ODI of the series.
The match was played at Headingley in Leeds and had superbly economical figures of 5-1-8-0. However, his performance was overshadowed by the brutal treatment given to debutant Sonny Baker (7-0-76-0). "I felt I bowled better at Headingley, but obviously I didn't get the wickets to show.
"But for the first four or five overs, well, actually the first 10 of the powerplay today, it was overcast. The ball was hard, the pitch was nipping. I don't know if a red ball would have done the same thing, but that's probably one of the times you don't want to put the ball down. I tried my best not to put it down today either," Archer said.
Jofra Archer unaware of world record winning margin
Interestingly, Jofra Archer was unaware of the world record winning margin for England and was happily shocked when told about the same. "To be honest, I didn't really look at the scoreboard much. I actually don't know what they finished on, we were so focused on just trying to get off. But it was exciting. There was an 'ooh' or an 'aah' every single over," the England fast bowler added.
