South Africa began their 5 ODIs and 3 T20s cricket match tour of Sri Lanka on Saturday. They lost the opening match against the host by a big margin of 180 runs. Kumar Sangakkara scores career best score of 169 runs in this match. Sri Lanka was playing without their regular skipper Angelo Mathews as he is serving two matches ban due to slow over rate in the Celkon Trophy Final. So, Dinesh Chandimal was named as the skipper for first two ODIs of the Dialog Cup. South Africa touring without their experienced players like Jacques Kallis and Graeme Smith. Africa got a blow just before the match their opener Hashim Amla was ruled out due to injury.
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| Angelo Mathews and AB De Villiers with the Dialog Cup Trophy |
TOSS: South Africa won the toss and elected to field first.
Sri Lanka Batting
Batting :
Sri Lanka included left handed batsman J Mubarak in their squad for the first time in last 5 years. Sri Lanka started their inning with U Tharanga and T Dilshan but lost Dilshan early at the score of 23. Then Sangakkara and Tharanga carried the inning and added 70 runs together before Tharanga got out scoring 43 runs. M Jayawardene replaced Tharanga build up a healthy partnership of 74 runs. Sangakkara completed his fifty in 67 balls and Sri Lanka reached the target of 150 runs in 30th over.
At the score of 167 in 34th over, Jayawardene departed scoring 42 runs. Now Sangakkara got the company of Thirimane and he started playing his shots. In batting powerplay overs they put on 46 runs without losing a wicket. Sangakkara completed his century from 103 balls hitting 8 fours and 4 sixes and SriLanka reached to the score of 250 in the 45th over.
Sangakkara was the aggressive between the two and Sangakkara kept playing his shots on the will and soon reached to score of 150 in 127 balls. In last over Thirimane got out at the score of 290 and he was followed by Sangakkara scoring career best 169 runs from 137 deliveries hitting 18 fours and 6 sixes. Srilanka put up a score of 320 runs in their allotted 50 overs.
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| Kumar Sangakkara Scored Career Best 169 Runs |
Sangakkara was the aggressive between the two and Sangakkara kept playing his shots on the will and soon reached to score of 150 in 127 balls. In last over Thirimane got out at the score of 290 and he was followed by Sangakkara scoring career best 169 runs from 137 deliveries hitting 18 fours and 6 sixes. Srilanka put up a score of 320 runs in their allotted 50 overs.
Bowling :
It was off day in office for the South African bowlers and they were thrashed all over the parks by Sri Lankan batsman specially K Sangakkara. South African bowlers were ineffective as well as wayward as they bowled 15 wides. Their fielding was also below their standard as they dropped some catches as well. Apart from Morne Morkel every one gave runs with the economy of more than 6 runs. Morkel picked 2 wickets in his 10 overs and gave only 34 runs.
South African Inning
Batting:
To chase the target of 321 South Africa began their innings with new opening pair of Ingram and Peterson, but they lost Ingram on the very first ball of the match. Duminy was sent as no. 3 but he couldn’t last long and got out scoring 15 runs. Skipper AB De Villiers cam at no. 4 and carried the Soth African innings to the score of 73. At 73 in 12th over De Villiers got out and he was followed by Peterson on the score of 75.
South African couldn’t come out of this and they kept losing the wickets at regular intervals. Apart from the Miller and R Peterson no batsman could stand at the pitch for too long and South Africa bundled out at the score of 140 runs in 32nd over. Alviro and Robin Peterson scored 29 each and they were the high scorers for the African team. Africa lost the match by huge margin of 180 runs.
Bowling:
Sri Lanka bowled and fielded brilliantly due to which every regular Sri Lankan bowler picked up a wicket. T Parera and R Herath got 3 wickets each while Dilshan picked up 2 wickets. Malinga and Eranga got one wickets each as well.
Sri Lankan batsman Kumar Sangakkara was adjudged man of the match for his career best knock of 169. Due to this innings of Sangakkara, Sri Lanka could put up the score of 320 on the board. Dinesh Chandimal started his captaincy with win over the South Africa.
South Africa definitely missed the services of their strike bowlers Dale Steyn. The depth in the batting was also unavailable. There bad form is in continuation from the Champions trophy cricket tournament. As it was first match of the series so players may take some time to adjust with the conditions in Sri Lanka. So, the onus is on the coach and captain of South Africa how they prepare this young team for the quick comeback in the series. The next ODI of the series is on 23rd July at the same venue.
The way South Africa played in the opening match they are going to struggle in the series very badly.
ReplyDeleteSouth Africa struggled in absence of their star batsmen. But they are very good young team in the making for 2015 World Cup.
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