Jonny Bairstow thrives in middle order role as Newlands love affair continues

Pushed into the middle order as Jos Buttler shared opening duties with Jason Roy, Bairstow arrived at the crease sooner than he might have expected, but he only left the field once he had dragged England to a victory that at one stage looked unlikely

Jonny Bairstow insisted he doesn’t mind where he bats in England’s T20I line-up after his extraordinary individual brilliance dragged his country to a win over South Africa that at one stage looked unlikely.

Pushed into the middle order as Jos Buttler shared opening duties with Jason Roy, Bairstow arrived at the crease sooner than he might have expected. Both Buttler and Roy fell early in a challenging chase after the hosts, led by a half century from Faf du Plessis, made 179 for 6 from their 20 overs.

However, Bairstow was scintillating from the outset; he struck flat sixes off Tabraiz Shamsi and toyed with Beuran Hendricks, taking 28 off his final over as England turned the screw to win with four balls remaining.

Asked how he felt about his new role, he said: “I don’t mind – as long as I’m contributing and putting in match-winning performances, whether that be opening the batting, batting at No.4, batting at No.6 like previously I have done, then so be it.

“I think you’ve got two choices, to be honest. You’ve got the choice of whether or not you’re disgruntled by it or you use the experiences that you’ve had previously in Test cricket, in one-day cricket, in T20 cricket – whether that be in the IPL or for England, and put all those experiences together to utilise them in the best way possible. I’m really happy with where my game’s at.”

Jonny Bairstow blitz leads England to victory

It is easily forgotten, given his recent success as an opener in white-ball cricket, that Bairstow initially came into international cricket as a middle order player. He batted 37 times in limited-over cricket for England before opening for the first time in 2017.

His prior expertise showed, timing his innings to perfection and playing the spin of Shamsi, George Linde and Heinrich Klaasen with a mixture of brutality and tremendous guile. Alongside Ben Stokes, with whom he has previously shared a 399-run partnership at Newlands in a 2016 Test match, he rebuilt England’s reply that was faltering at 34 for 3.

“It seems to be one of my favourite grounds,” he laughed afterwards. “I quite like it being my favourite ground – it’s amazing place to come and play cricket. It was just unfortunate that we didn’t have a special crowd in to witness a game like that because they would have thoroughly enjoyed it.”

On this occasion, his stand with Stokes was worth 85 runs in just 52 balls, before cameos from Eoin Morgan and Sam Curran helped Bairstow to complete the job.

“I think that with the strength in depth we know we’ve got in the batting line-up, you’re always in with a chance,” he added. “We were pretty happy with where we were at – obviously we needed one big over, but we know that the guys we’ve got coming in can clear the ropes.

“I was really pleased with how I played. It’s a different role to what I’ve played previously, so going out and gaining confidence in playing in a different role and contributing to a match-winning knock is what it’s about.”

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