ENG VS RSA - Match 1, ICC Cricket World Cup 2019

Game one - check! Game two - West Indies v Pakistan at TrentBridge (the run-making orbit as I'd love to call). Do remember to join us tomorrow @ 09:00 local for all the action from Nottingham. Until then, this is Raju Peethala waving goodbye on behalf of my exalted crew: Ramakrishnan MS, Sagar Chawla, Vineet Anantharaman, Akshay Maanay, Hariprasad Sadanandan and, the ever-cheery scoring duo Venkatesh AV and Vinod Kumar.

Jofra Archer just played one and a half ODI when England's management believed that he's good enough to be part of World Cup and asserted they'e seen enough of him. Today's outcome only vindicates the sheer conviction Morgan and his crew have for this Barbadian lad. And what about Stokes? Is there anything that he can't do on a cricket field? Well, today's catch only adds more fizz to the missile that he already is. His catch will be seen by generations, and that is what this tournament is all about. As the legendary Bob Marley once said 'Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights' [*Sing along*]. South Africa needs to regroup and some good rest would do no bad.

ENG captain Morgan: Delighted to be off and running in this tournament. It's more satisfying than normal. We were very good today, the wicket didn't allow us to execute our plan which is to try and score quite a considerable total, but I thought the maturity and smart cricket we played shows the effort we put in the last two years and the experience as well. Extremely impressed. He (Stokes) had a field day and especially that catch he took was absolutely outstanding. To have a match-winner like that in the side, he is someone who lifts absolutely everybody and I thought the bowling unit really did get off to a great start and continued to learn from the first innings and then put into place in second innings. Slowish pitch, he (Archer) bowled fast and accurate and it's outstanding. He is taking everything in his stride at the moment and he is improving everyday and that's very exciting. Huge amount of pleasure. It's an area we were always trying to improve on and certainly we are looking for match winning contributions in the field.

SA Skipper, Faf: I think we have been outplayed in all three departments. Basically we were 3 down in 12 overs and I think we were looking for 330-340 but when we took the pace off we thought 300 was par. It was a plan (to start with Tahir). We wanted to target those two openers with leg spin, especially Roy. It worked today. Their batting was really good. They are a top-quality team and they showed that with the bat today. You need a bit of momentum in the first two games. He (Amla) is okay now and when he came back to the dressing room, he looked fine and hopefully that's a good sign for the next game. When we have Dale and all our resources, we back our bowling to restrict teams under 300.

Ben Stokes, Man of the Match: (On the catch) I was a little further in than I should have been. I panicked a bit I guess but it stuck. I shouldn't have been there (initially) and it was probably a regulation catch but I was in the wrong position. (On the pitch) The message from the batsmen in the middle was that it was a tricky pitch to bat on, so the aim was to get to 300-310. Maybe 330. I was looking to just pace it. The hard length was difficult and obviously, the slower balls and all. Towards the end, they (SA bowlers) were really hard to get away. I guess psychologically getting over the 300-run mark really helped. And then, our bowlers knew what to do and they executed well. (On the crowd support) It was unbelievable, excellent turnaround for the first World Cup and hope it continues.

Harsha Bhogle: Afraid South Africa never really recovered from Jofra Archer's opening spell. My man of the match. Powerful performance from England.

17:38 Local Time, 16:38 GMT, 22:08 IST: Not what we expected of this game, but this victory underlines why England have been tagged as favourites. Their bowlers, unlike their opponents, were pretty quick to adapt to the conditions and it was only a matter of time before they got their rewards. Jofra Archer, in particular, was the star of the show as he kept testing the Protea batters with short balls and the only time he looked like not taking a wicket was when he was fielding. Although de Kock and van der Dussen showed some fight, Faf and Duminy - South Africa's most experienced batting duo - faded pretty quickly and panicked at crunch moments. Amla's helmet blow and retiring out very early only made it worse for the visitors...

Eoin Morgan recorded 7000 ODI runs in what was his 200th ODI for England.

SA losing their first match in a WC:
Three runs vs WI, Cape Town, 2003
104 runs vs Eng, The Oval, 2019

Biggest defeats in WC for SA:
130 vs Ind MCG 2015
104 vs Eng Oval 2019
83 vs Aus Basseterre 2007
67 vs Ban Providence 2007

Stokes to Tahir, out Caught by Root!! Tahir bowled the first delivery of this game and he is the last batsman to get out. Just guided a classic set-up delivery to Root at first slip. England record a resounding victory [104 runs] against South Africa in the tournament opener. What.A.Start. for the hosts. Tahir c Root b Stokes 0(1)

Stokes to Tahir, THATS OUT!! Caught!!

Imran Tahir, right handed bat, comes to the crease

Stokes to Rabada, out Caught by Plunkett!! Ben Stokes can do nothing wrong today. Asks Rabada to go after a short ball and the latter obliges with what seemed like a crunching pull shot, only if he had timed it better, wasn't to be. Plunkett lurking at deep mid-wicket fence tumbles low and takes a fine catch running forward. Rabada c Plunkett b Stokes 11(19) [4s-2]

Stokes to Rabada, THATS OUT!! Caught!!

Stokes to Rabada, leg byes, FOUR, errs in line, sends it down the leg-side and Rabada's back pad helps the ball deflect to the fine leg fence

Stokes to Rabada, no run, slogged away and it drops just short of the man (Morgan) at mid-wicket

Stokes to Rabada, FOUR, wobbly seam short of length delivery wide of off, Rabada opens the bat face and sends an educated edge wide of the keeper

Plunkett to Lungi Ngidi, no run, staright-batted, blocked to point

Plunkett to Lungi Ngidi, no run, cross-seam length delivery on the stumps, Ngidi swings in hope but all he can manage is a thigh pad en route to the keeper

Plunkett to Lungi Ngidi, SIX, whoa! Look at that flamboyance from Lungi. Even Rabada likes it, taps his partner on the back and shares a beaming smile. It was full and zoning in towards the stumps, Ngidi ambled forward and used his bottom hand power to thump it clean and straight over wide long-on. He was one-legged when he executed the shot and that ignited a bit of cheer from the crowd