England duo Phil Salt and Harry Brook admit thinking passing 300 was impossible

England captain Harry Brook insisted “there’s not many heights we can’t reach” after his side posted their first 300-plus total in T20s in a thumping win over South Africa.

Phil Salt’s scorching 39-ball ton was England’s quickest in any format and he also recorded their highest T20 individual score with 141 not out off 60 deliveries to underpin an eye-popping 304 for two.

This was the third best T20 total of all-time – only bettered by Zimbabwe’s 344 against the Gambia in October 2024 and Nepal’s 314 over Mongolia two years ago – and the highest involving two Test nations.

A record-breaking evening at Emirates Old Trafford concluded with a shellshocked South Africa crumbling to 158 from 16.1 overs to lose by 146 runs and set-up a winner-takes-all showdown on Sunday.

“I’m pretty lost for words,” Brook said. “We never thought anyone could get 300 but with the batting line-up we have got, there’s not many heights we can’t reach.”

England’s cause was aided by Jos Buttler’s swaggering 83 off 30 balls and cameos of 26 from Jacob Bethell and Brook’s 41 not out but the highlight was Salt, who thrashed 15 fours and eight sixes.

Salt, who dropped a catch and made a golden duck in Wednesday’s rain-affected loss in Cardiff, was similarly of the opinion the total they made on his home ground was unachievable in T20 internationals.

“Honestly, no is the answer,” he said. “I’ve played in some Indian Premier League games, where I feel like we’ve gone bananas all the way through, and we ended up on 270. It’s a hell of an achievement.

“It was only when Brooky came in that he mentioned it to me. I kept seeing the projected total coming up on the scoreboard but I thought they’d have a couple of good overs and find a way to shut us down.

“The way we played, we didn’t give them the chance to so I’m really happy with that.

“I don’t think any team’s going to go out there going ‘right, lads, 300 tonight’. That’s a huge banana skin. But it’s definitely a record to break.

“There’s going to be teams getting to the 10 to 12-over mark and international T20 cricket now and thinking, ‘we’re on it’. But I don’t think anyone’s going to go up from ball one and try and get 300.”

In reaching a fourth T20 ton, Salt eclipsed Lancashire team-mate Liam Livingstone’s 42-ball benchmark made against Pakistan in 2021 but the opener was initially unaware of his achievement.

“There wasn’t too much of a look at the scoreboard because it had actually gone off,” Salt added. “It was just showing the game. I didn’t really know what was going on at the time.”

South Africa brought up their 50 in the fourth over in reply but Jofra Archer induced errors from Ryan Rickelton and Lhuan-dre Pretorius in the space of three balls to extinguish the tourists’ hopes.

Archer, taken out of the firing line because of the slippery conditions underfoot two days earlier, claimed three for 25 and there were a two wickets each for Sam Curran, Liam Dawson and Will Jacks.

England now head to the Trent Bridge decider with confidence high, but South Africa head coach Shukri Conrad said: “We need to be better than that. It was an abject performance, really not good enough.”