Cricket World Cup: England beat South Africa by 104 points in the opening match

Ben Stokes and Jofra Archer turned on The Oval to make sure that England would beat South Africa and have their World Cup campaign win.

Archer, who was playing regularly in his fourth international match one day, scored 3-27 and hit Hashim Amla on the helmet to force him to retire temporarily injured.

After Stokes took a surprising one-handed hold at the border to dismiss Andile Phehlukwayo, South Africa was fired for 207 to lose by 104 points.

Earlier, Stokes had made 89 and Jason Roy, Joe Root and Eoin Morgan took half a century to equal England at 311-8, a total that did not look better than normal.

Kock's Quinton 68 had South Africa in the hunt at 129-2, but he shot Liam Plunkett at the long-leg to become the first of three wickets to fall for 15 runs.

When Stokes took two wickets in two balls, the world and favorite numbers completed the tournament in an ideal way.

In a competition where the 10 teams face each other once to determine the semifinalists, the hosts will travel to Nottingham to meet Pakistan at Trent Bridge on Monday.

South Africa, who showed the ball enough to suggest playing in the semi-finals, is back at The Oval on Sunday to face Bangladesh.

Examination of England

England has been competing in this competition for four years since its sad first-round exit at the last World Cup, sweeping all of its opponents mainly with its very powerful batting lineup.

But during the three quarters of the day that began with the opening of the tournament by the Duke of Susbad, they risked being upset by a well-trained South Africa.

Indeed, on a slow ground producing an intriguing cricket rather than amusing, it was sometimes a discreet beginning for the tournament. Under a gray sky, even the crowd has been mastered for long periods.

The exceptions to all this were Archer and Stokes. For Archer, rhythm, aggression and hostility suggested that a wicket was likely every time he held the ball in his hands.

However, the moment of the day was reserved for Stokes, who made the most incredible take, a catch that will probably not take place better throughout the tournament.

As Phehlukwayo swept Adil Rashid towards the middle limit of the wicket, the ball seemed too high for Stokes.

He jumped, throwing himself back with his outstretched right arm. While he was hanging on to one hand, the crowd jumped and his teammates took him for incredulous celebrations.

Archer leads the attack on England

Born in Barbados to a British father, Archer only qualified to play in England in March and showed here exactly why he had been quick in the World Cup team.

The wickets he took were all going, at least in part, at his own pace. After Amla wore a bad blow to the grid, Aiden Markram strained to slip and Faf du Plessis was hooked to a long leg.

With South Africa in danger of weakening, De Kock added 85 points with Rbadie van der Dussen. Both of them had makeshift moments – Rashid seemed to have played with De Kock only so the bonds did not dissolve, while Van der Dussen was dropped by boxer Jos Buttler.

The game turned after De Kock helped a short ball from Plunkett to Root and a long leg. JP Duminy opened Moeen and Dwaine Pretorius was dropped by Stokes' throw from the abyss as three wickets fell into 21 bullets.

Archer came back to eliminate Van der Dussen with another small ball and, although Amla came back before placing Plunkett behind, Stokes took over.

First come the wonders, then the wickets of Kagiso Rabada and Imran Tahir have completed an impressive display of bowling and fitness in England.

England is working in total

For various reasons – the control of South African bowlers, the slowness of the pitch and maybe even some nerves – it was not England's frank goals of the past four years.

The tone was given by a skilful Du Plessis captain. Tahir was chosen to open the bowling and Jonny Bairstow beat her second ball to become the first opener to win a gold duck in the first round of the World Cup.

To their credit, England has stabilized. Roy and Root added 106 and, after falling in the space of four balls, Morgan and Stokes shared 106.

Roy played powerful discs while Root scored almost exclusively on his pads. Morgan was shooting and driving, playing the role of the aggressor in his stall with Stokes until he was caught athletically by a Markram diving in Tahir.

Stokes started calmly – his first 31 points came from 36 balls – but he gradually increased his score. Nevertheless, the biggest blow to the last charge of England came when Buttler was hooked to his stumps.

Faced with a clever bowling of South Africa, the late badault of England never materialized, but their total proved more than enough.

"A fantastic start" – reaction

The versatile Englishman Ben Stokes at the BBC Test Match Special: "I'm sure there were some nerves beating wildly, I did not feel that way for a long time when we got to the ground, and coming back with a win is a fantastic start.

"It's the best we've put on the market for about two or three years, and the amount of points we've recorded is absolutely brilliant."

Former British captain Michael Vaughan at TMS: "The success of any team is usually focused on the versatile player.Ben Stokes regain form in the first match of the World Cup is a huge boost for England.

"His innings with the bat were really smart – and that's how I would describe this performance from England: smart."

English captain Eoin Morgan: "We were very good today, we were good as batting even though we could not score a big total, which was our Plan A.

"But we felt that the score we had on the board was above average, and we will not have days like this every time.

"Jofra Archer has been fast and accurate on a slow pitch – it's great for a young man – he takes it all in. It's very exciting.

South African captain Faf du Plessis: "We were outclbaded in all three departments, I thought 300 was equal – we were bowlers, but there was some very good batting performance from England.

"Hashim Amla is doing well now, he was everywhere when he came off the court, but I hope he's fine for the next game."