Moeen Ali smashed an 18-ball fifty, England’s fastest in T20 cricket, in a spectacular runfest that included 29 sixes
big six
over square leg. Klaasen then gets a couple of boundaries, one driven and one pulled, to make it a very good over for South Africa: 17 from it. South Africa are still in this game. “How accurate is the speed gun being used today?” says Tom Van der Gucht. “It clocked Gleeson bowling 91mph in that last over and Topley hitting 87. I’m afraid I don’t know too much about Gleeson, but with England’s obsession with finding then breaking speed merchants, I’m surprised he’s not played before this summer at his respective age. Also, I thought Topley was more of a low 80’s operator.
Those speeds sound about right. Gleeson is a late bloomer, and he has been on England’s radar for a while. The reason he has been picked now is that Archer, Wood and Stone are all unavailable. But who knows – I can recall the speedgun at Lord’s in 1996 saying Mark Ealham was faster than Wasim Akram.An attempted yorker from Chris Jordan is spanked back over his head by Hendricks, who is into his work now.