Morgan takes control as England chase down South Africa and the T20 series

What a series, what a game, what a run chase, what a crick in the neck from repeatedly watching the ball sail through the Centurion skies. And what an innings, too, from England’s captain Eoin Morgan, who came out with thethird T20 international slipping away from his team and repeatedly pumped the ball over the leg-side rope to reel in the most extraordinary chase.

At the end England emerged 2-1 winners of the series. They came to South Afrcia to prepare for the T20 World Cup in Australia. The evidence suggests England have every chance of going far in the competition if their batting order can maintain this level of fearless craft. It might also be one to watch from behind the sofa.

Quinton de Kock won the toss and opted to bat first. Dale Steyn returned to the team and Heinrich Klaasen replaced Jon-Jon Smuts. Joe Denly was unwell, replaced by Dawid Malan for his first game of the tour.

Related: England chase down target of 223 to win third T20 and series – as it happened

SuperSport Park was a baking hot place in the midday sun. The grassy banks were thronged like a Riviera beach in August. The main stand boisterously full. The pitch was an alluring light grey.

England began with Moeen Ali from the Hennops river end. His first ball was short and flayed through the off-side. His fifth ball was overpitched and lifted over mid-on.

Mark Wood appeared from the same end and saw his first ball spanked over mid-off for a huge, clear, cloudless six by De Kock, a shot pulled out of the air from a standing start by this mind-bendingly brilliant striker of a ball.

Pitches like this are often described as roads or belters. This was something else, a belter of a road, a four-lane super-smooth autobahn. There was almost an audible gulp from England’s bowlers as De Kock took 26 off six balls and South Africa’s 50 came up in 3.4 overs. England had one thought. Where to hide the ball?

Enter Ben Stokes, who has had a happy habit of taking wickets in his first over. De Kock was deceived by an off-cutter and caught at deep square leg. Next over Adil Rashid took out Temba Bavuma with lovely wrong-un, snaking in between bat and pad to light up his timbers. At 100 for two off t 10 overs the platform had been set.

At which point Klaasen introduced himself. When in doubt - or at least when in Centurion - send for a brawny-shouldered Afrikaner. Klaasen plays for the Titans here. He knows the angles, the pitch, the sounds.

Early on he went straight or over midwicket. Later he bent his knees and started to carve behind point. Klaasen was on 40 as Wood returned. Within the space of two balls he had gone to 50 off 25 , pulling a slower ball for his fourth six to get there. He was out skying Tom Curran to Stokes at mid-off for a fine, home-town 66 off 33.

South Africa finished on a hugely imposing 222 for six. England will perhaps regret a slight lack of control with the ball. Wood was wild on the highveld. His first 12 balls went for 39 runs, with three fours and three sixes. Only Curran looked in control of his variations. He bowled one sensational dot ball in the 17th over, a dead-straight back-of-the-hand slowie that Dwaine Pretorius could only watch, and watch some more and then block.

South Africa still looked to have enough. And so England’s last batting innings of the tour began, on the kindest pitch imaginable, with absolute licence to come out swinging.

Jos Buttler and Jason Roy took nine off the opening over, but Roy was caught trying to hit the ball to Lesotho. Buttler looked a little frantic, swatting and swiping at thin air, but still picking the gaps. He got to 37 off his first 19 balls without seeming to find the middle once.

On came Tabraiz Shamsi to bowl his hunched, low-trajectory left-arm wrist spin. Buttler took one look and brought out the scimitar, swiping four then six. Bairstow, who had been ticking along nicely, added another with thrilling short-arm power. At 81 for one off seven England were slightly ahead, despite playing with less fluency.

Buttler’s 50 came up with a run-down to third man. Nobody has ever questioned his talent, only his role in the team. This is a man good enough to lead a vertiginous run chase even when he’s finding his way back to form. He departed ramping one up in the air just after the hundred had come up in the ninth over.

At which point enter Dawid Malan for his first proper game of cricket since the start of January in the dust of Dhaka. He scratched about for an angsty 11. Bairstow went to a quick-fire 64 before missing a slower ball. When he plays like this there is a murderous quality to his hitting, an obvious, cold kind of pleasure in watching the ball disappear.

England needed 78 off 37 with Stokes and Morgan at the wicket. Not a bad set-up for the endgame in this wicked, snaking series, but with the need to pump the throttle instantly from a standing start.

Morgan did so with breathless intent, standing coiled at the crease and hitting five of his first 15 balls for six. The chase had been cut down again, this time to 33 off the last 18 balls.

Andile Phehlukwayo had been hard to get away. Stokes had been slow to start. He chose his moment, hammering sixes over wide mid-on, the second one out of the ground and into the car park, a frankly ridiculous piece of hitting, and the moment turned the game decisively.

Stokes holed out to deep square leg. Then Morgan took charge. First he pumped another six over deep midwicket’s fingertips, then lifted another a mile back to go to 55 off 21, as good a finisher’s innings as you’ll see, albeit in an absolute face-cramming run-fest.

England needed one from the final over. Moeen smashed the first ball over mid-off. Somehow England had got there with legroom to spare.