TAUNTON - Seamer Tom Curran restricted South Africa to an iffy total of 174 for eight in Friday's key second Twenty20 International against South Africa at the County Ground in Taunton.
The Cape Town-born Curran secured telling figures of three for 33 on his debut for England. Lacing superb yorkers with a slew of cleverly disguised slower deliveries, the young right-armer counted the dangerous Chris Morris among his victims.
Captain AB de Villiers top-scored, striking a trio of towering sixes en route to 46 from 20 deliveries. Opener JJ Smuts, meanwhile, recovered from a first-ball duck in Wednesday's series opener.
Smuts gathered 45 from 35 - and complemented de Villiers' cheeky premeditation through square-leg with some sound hitting across midwicket.
England dropped two catches, with mid-off fielder Chris Jordan and on-side boundary rider Liam Livingstone guilty as charged. The hard-hitting Behardien was quick to capitalise on Jordan's error, capping the innings with 32 for 21 at an admittedly small venue.
The Proteas were thoroughly outplayed in the first T20I at Southampton's Rose Bowl earlier this week, when unbeaten half-centuries from de Villiers and Behardien proved entirely insufficient in a heavy nine-wicket defeat.
England have won the toss and asked South Africa to bat first in second T20 in Taunton. England crushed South Africa by nine wickets in the first match of the series in Southampton. The third and final game is on Sunday in Cardiff.
England have rotated their squad, with Mason Crane and Alex Hales left out of the team that played in the first match of the series. Sam Billings opens the batting in Hales' place, while seamer Tom Curran and batting allrounder Liam Livingstone make their international debuts. With Mark Wood rested for the remainder of the series, England have also recalled Liam Plunkett but there is no place for Craig Overton, the Somerset seamer, on his home ground. He is expected to make his debut on Sunday instead. South Africa have recalled Morne Morkel, Chris Morris and Dane Paterson, with Imran Tahir, Wayne Parnell and Dwaine Pretorius missing out.
This is the first men's international at this ground since the 1999 World Cup and the first involving England since 1983. It is a 12,500 sell-out, with Somerset claiming they could have sold it twice over. Last week's Royal London One-Day Cup quarterfinal between Somerset and Nottinghamshire here witnessed all of 834 runs in 98 overs.
England and South Africa have met on 14 occasions in the shortest format of the international game, with the latter triumphant seven times. The Proteas, however, have not recorded a T20I victory over the English, in England, since 2012. England are second only to New Zealand in the International Cricket Council's T20I rankings, while the South Africans currently occupy sixth position, flanked by fifth-placed West Indies and seventh-placed Australia. The third and final T20I will be played at Sophia Gardens in Cardiff, Wales, on Sunday. Four Tests will follow at Lord's, Trent Bridge, The Oval and Old Trafford.
Scoreboard
SOUTH AFRICA:
J Smuts c Plunkett b Dawson 45
R Hendricks b Curran 7
M Mosehle c Buttler b Plunkett 15
AB de Villiers c Morgan b Willey 46
D Miller c Buttler b Plunkett 8
F Behardien lbw b Jordan 32
C Morris c Roy b Curran 12
A Phehlukwayo b Curran 0
M Morkel not out 0
D Paterson not out 4
EXTRAS: (w5) 5
TOTAL: (8 wkts; 20 overs) 174
FOW: 1-25, 2-57, 3-96, 4-113, 5-127, 6-157, 7-164, 8-170
BOWLING: D Willey 4-0-29-1, C Jordan 4-0-38-1, T Curran 4-0-33-3, L Plunkett 4-0-36-2, L Dawson 4-0-38-1
TOSS: England
UMPIRES: R Bailey, M Gough
TV UMPIRE: R Robinson
MATCH REFEREE: A Pycroft (Zim)