Brook hits half-century but England slump to defeat as Bavuma steers South Africa to series victory

England were condemned to a seventh defeat in eight one-day internationals as South Africa claimed series victory with a record chase at Manguang Oval.

The South Africans put the previous successful ODI pursuit of 272 in Bloemfontein in the shade to ease to their 343-run target with five wickets intact and five deliveries to spare.

Defeat in the high-scoring thriller will not derail England’s development plans, as they bed personnel into the squad for this autumn’s World Cup, although they will be wary of ending an increasingly disturbing run of results.

David Miller got South Africa over the line with five balls and five wickets to spare

The double world champions have now gone through four winless series under the captain-coach axis of Jos Buttler and Matthew Mott.

They looked favourites to level things at 1-1 at the halfway stage but another underwhelming second innings, this time in the field following Friday night’s collapse under the floodlights here, has turned Wednesday’s fixture in Kimberley into a dead rubber.

South Africa captain Temba Bavuma led the way, fighting off cramp to hit a third one-day international hundred, supported by each of the other top seven batters reaching 20. Crucially, the home team never let the required run rate climb to eight per over.

England’s hefty total was constructed courtesy of a rampant final 20 overs in which they struck 181 runs, including 60 from the final four.

Temba Bavuma’s century helped South Africa to victory in the second ODI on Sunday

Until that stage things had moved at a much more sedate pace, dictated by the loss of early wickets, although Harry Brook’s first runs in one-day international cricket, 80 of them, rubbed against that grain.

Brook transferred the no-fear attitude of his Test batting into the 50-over format with his 75-ball innings and after his departure, Jos Buttler and Moeen Ali took up the mantle.

Buttler’s unbeaten 94 was his highest score as England captain while Moeen, with whom he combined in a fifth-wicket stand of 106, provided a first 50-plus contribution in this format for 64 matches – a sequence stretching back to a belligerent 53-ball hundred versus West Indies in Bristol in September 2017.

However, despite the efforts of Olly Stone, whose heavy pounding of the pitch reaped excellent figures of 10-1-48-2, England could not make good their position, and David Miller finished things in style by lofting Chris Woakes over long-off for six from the first ball of the match’s final over.

Harry Brook made an impressive 80 as England scored 342-7 in 50 overs in Bloemfontein