Hambantota: Some superb batting from South African captain AB de Villiers and some hostile bowling from Morne Morkel and Dale Steyn helped South Africa beat Sri Lanka by 32 runs in the final match of Group C in the ICC T20 World Cup.
Sri Lanka in their pursuit of 79 runs lost their way very early, as Morne Morkel bowled a superb first over conceding only five runs. The over also saw a misunderstanding between the two players which led to Dilshan’s wicket. Interestingly, Sri Lanka instead of sending an experience player sent Dilshan Munaweera, the move backfired as he could only score 13 runs of 14 deliveries.
Captain Jayawardene who promoted himself up the order couldn’t do much as he too got out very early in the innings. Sri Lanka never got back into the match and surrendered meekly in the end.
Earlier, in the day Sri Lanka won the toss, Mahela Jayawardene opened the innings with Nuwan Kulasekara who found the right line and length with the very first delivery which Richard Levi played tentatively to get off the mark with a couple. Levi on his third delivery tried to break free only to see Munaweera pull up a splendid catch. Faf du Plessis than replaced Levi.
On the very next Delivery, Hashim Amla showed his class hitting the ball over the top of covers. Amla continued to excel as he hit two boundaries in the next over of Malinga. Sri Lanka introduced spin in the third over and that resulted in Amla’s wicket. South African captain AB de Villiers than walked out to bat and together he and du Plessis ran hard between the wickets to provide South Africa the momentum.
AB showed his class and scored his runs at a rapid pace, while du Plessis rotated the strike on the other end. AB scored 30 runs off just 13 balls before getting out to Malinga.
JP Duminy ended South Afrcan innings in style, a four and a six of the last two deliveries, taking South Africa’s total to 78.
Brief Score:
South Africa: 78/4 (de Villiers 30, Kulasekara 1-9)
Sri Lanka: 46/5 (Steyn 2-10)
By Indian Sports News Network
