England’s Reece Topley helps rip through South Africa to level series

BAM! Liam Livingstone has just heaved Anrich Nortje’s 90mph delivery for six over square leg. BAM! BAM! POW! Another six, then another, followed by a four. It’s carnage in the middle.

Livingstone doesn’t spot Nortje’s follow-up slower ball and plinks it to midwicket. His 26-ball cameo worth 38 comes to an end. It doesn’t matter. Sam Curran is still there and is happy to take charge. POW! POW! BAM! Two fours and a six off Tabraiz Shamsi has the crowd back on side.

Curran doesn’t spot that Shamsi has gone wide of the wicket and biffs a catch to long-off. His 18-ball cameo worth 35 comes to an end. It doesn’t matter. This England team doesn’t do rebuilds. When the wheels fall off they don’t pull over to put on a spare. They keep the revs up until they’re hurtling over a canyon like Thelma and Louise.

So much of this 118-run win defied convention. Besides Livingston and Curran, three other English batters lost their wicket immediately after hitting a boundary. Jason Roy, Johnny Bairstow and David Willey all perished in pursuit of their next fix.

For the seventh time in eight white-ball matches, England failed to bat out their allotted overs after being bowled out for 201. That is a large enough sample to suggest that something isn’t working.

But this is a team that seems oblivious to prior failures. Chastening defeats to India in Southampton, Birmingham and The Oval, and to South Africa in Durham, are yesterday’s news. Like those batters who keep chasing another hit, Jos Buttler’s charges are living in the moment.

The pace was relentless. After Manchester’s rain delayed the start of play by almost four hours, and reduced the match to 29 overs apiece, Keshav Maharaj chose to field first and opened the bowling himself.

Roy got