Harry Brook watched England serve up the worst performance of his brief captaincy reign as they were hammered at Headingley and admitted: “Nobody wants to come and watch that”.
The Yorkshire crowd were treated to a mismatch rather than a cricketing spectacle, with South Africa needing less than 46 of the scheduled 100 overs to confirm a thumping seven-wicket win in the first match of the Metro Bank ODI series.
England were toppled for 131 after being sent in, Jamie Smith standing alone with 54, and watched as their opponents treated the chase like a T20. They were spared the indignity of defeat coming before the floodlights were turned on, but only just.
Brook won all six matches against the West Indies as he kicked off his tenure in style earlier this summer, but he made no at