South Africa choke Sri Lanka out of the World Cup
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| Proteas made history, winning a knockout match at the Cricket World Cup. |
The Proteas began a new chapter in their bid for a
maiden world cup title.
For the first time at the tournament, South Africa won a
knockout match.
The comprehensive nine wicket victory over the 1996 champions also booked
them a place in the semi-finals for a fourth time.
5am SA time
The men in Green and Gold lost the toss, but their attitude
after the anthems suggested they would not be settling for second place beyond
that.
A great opening spell of bowling between Kyle Abbott and
Dale Steyn restricted the slashing Sri
Lankans to 16 for 2 after 6 overs.
Thirimanne fights back
Once Tillakaratne Dilshan (duck) and Perera (3) were gone Lahiru
Thirimanne came out fighting with fearless strokes.
After 10 overs he was the only top-four batsman to score a boundary
and reach double figures.
10 overs gone
At the other end Sangakkara – who is retiring from ODIs
after this world cup- batted like a man playing in his last match and hell-bent
on making it count, regardless of his strike rate.
After 23 balls he had two runs to show, while his batting
partner had amassed 27 from 21 deliveries.
Morkel gets loose
Morne Morkel despite some unplayable deliveries released a
bit of the pressure created by Steyn and Abbott when introduced as first change.
After four overs, he went for 14 runs and included one
maiden, a no ball, two wides and four byes.
15 overs and introduction of Duminy and Tahir
It took Sri Lanka 15 overs to get to 50, but in their
favour, they managed not to lose a wicket for 11 overs at this point.
Imran Tahir nearly got the edge of Sangakkara with his fifth
ball and also nearly went for six off his next one. This would be the last boundary
until the 28th over.
The Terrific Mr Tahir
The stubborn partnership produced 65 runs but ended when
Thirimanne lobbed the ball back to Tahir for a handy 41.
Jayawardene survived a big LBW shout in the 22nd
over, the review stayed with the umpire’s call of not out although ball was
hitting the stumps comfortably.
The spinner did get his man in his next over as Jayawardene’s
poor form with bat continued, caught by Faf du Plessis for four runs.
The gloves are off
Captain Angelo Matthews ended an 11 over boundary drought hitting
Tahir to the advertising ropes.
He would later get peppered on the hand by Morkel which
resulted in the gloves coming off and the physio coming on.
Sri Lanka in a spin and Duminy the ninja
While the fast bowlers set the tone upfront it was the spinners
that did the cleaning up.
JP Duminy became the first Protea to take a world cup hat
trick which was spread over two overs.
He removed the captain Matthews with the last ball of his
eighth over.
The accomplishment was achieved with the stealth and deadliness
of a ninja sending Nuwan
Kulasekara and Dushmantha Chameera back to the hut with
the first two balls of his following over.
I must credit Kulasekara for walking when it looked like
umpire Rob Tucker was not going to lift a finger.
Considering that South Africa had used up their review, this
could have frustrated the Proteas.
His spinning partner Tahir finished with four wickets as Sri Lanka folded for 133 in
37.2 overs.
Sangakkara, it must say, was also possibly best
and worst performer with the bat in the
innings making 45 off 96 balls.
Sanga gone
The dismissal was followed by a few minutes of heavy rain, as the cricket gods shed a tear for one of the game's greats.
Good bye to him and Jayawardene - Legends!
The chase, the victory
Not much can be said about the reply except that South
Africa chased it down comfortably and with 32 overs to spare.
Good news was that Quinton de Kock looks to be coming into
some form.
His 78 not out improves on his previous high score at this
world cup, a 26 against the UAE, and many SA fans will be hoping for more of the same going forward.
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