By Brian Thomas
His first victim of his sheer skill level was first ODI centurion Avishka Fernando who got undone for 8 runs caught by the bucket hands of Reza Hendricks with the hosts on 18 runs.
Banuka Rajapaksha was his next victim out for his second conservative duck hence the reverse gear was engaged in the Sri Lanka dressing room pretty early in the unlikely run chase. Opener Minod Banuka departed with Sri Lanka on 19, hence the top three batsman were in the hut , from then on its catch up cricket.
Dhananjaya de Silva and Charith Asalanka had to rebuild the shattered innings, but the score board pressure kept staring at them. Asalanka played with ease, by letting the ball come onto his bat and looked a class act.
Dhananjaya looked perplexed , since Shamsi and skipper Maharaj controlled the scoring rate by varying their line and length, using the crease and slowing their deliveries to which Dhananjaya had no answer. He was ultimately caught down the leg side by wicket keeper Klassan thereby opening the wicket taking gate of Tabraiz Shamsi who took 5 for 49 his career best.
Skipper Dasun Shanaka joined Charith Akalanka and the pair got together with Sri Lanka 61 for 4 wickets at the departure of Sri Lanka’s most experienced batsman Dhananjaya de Silva. Akalanka and Shanaka were batting with great composure, however they could not keep up with the South African run rate.
Play was interrupted in the 27th over with Sri Lanka on 129 for 4 wickets and that sure did break the rhythm and the colour of the game.
Sri Lanka were set a revised target after the rain break, and the Duckworth Lewis Method gave an equation to get 265 runs in 41 overs , which made the task more difficult, with the loss of 4 wickets. However the wet ball tends to skid onto the bat , Sri Lanka still had hopes especially with Akalanka striking it well.
With the score on 132 in the 28th over and the target of 265 to be got in 41 overs, the Protease seem to be the happier team. They had Shanaka caught off the wrist spinner Shamsi at deep mid wicket by the safe hands of George Lundi for 30, when he pulled a loose delivery, and found the lone fielder close to the fence.
Despite Akalanka’s masterful innings of 77 and the late flurry of 36 in 23 balls by Chamika Karunaratne, Sri Lanka was going down a slippery slope to be bowled out for 197 runs in the 37th over.
It is a big win for South Africa because they not only level the series but get 10 important points to their base score for ICC World Cup Championship trophy in 2023.
Sri Lanka will have to get back to the drawing board. They got the game under control in the 37th over when South Africa lost their 3rd wicket on 177 runs, but lost the ploy by leaking 94 runs in the last 10 overs. They still need a batsman at number 3 who can play the anchor role, because that slot looks a weak link. Akila Dhananjaya must not try too many varieties in his bowling in his first two three overs especially if he is given the ball in the power play, because too many could give the batsman long hops with the field restrictions during the power play overs.
No doubt South Africa deserved to win. They were the better team in all three departments of the game today.
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