Sri Lanka recorded their first ODI series win after 18 months as yesterday’s low-scoring thriller against South Africa ended in a 78 run win and a 2-1 series. Despite being restricted to 203 runs, they troubled the South Africans early and bowled them out for just 125 runs.
The series against South Africa started on the 2nd of September, with a win for Sri Lanka, and following that match, a win for South Africa to level the series. It should be noted that a captaincy change had to be made following Temba Bawuma’s injury in the first match.
The 1st ODI in particular was an important confidence booster as it was the first time since the 2019 world cup we had scored a 300+ total in 50 overs. The second match however we were all out for 197 and yesterday, we were 203/9. While there is room to improve in terms of batting, there were some positives well.
To call Charith Asalanka as a consistent middle-order batsman would be an understatement. He did no impress in his first games against England but once he played on home soil, he flourished. He scored 196 runs in this series and being a youngster, he won the man of thr series award. 2 half-centuries and an unlucky 47 yesterday, but he was on song when the situation turned bad and was the anchor of the Sri Lankan batting.
Avishska Fernando who won the man of the match award in the first game with his 3rd century failed to repeat his success in the next two games. He could have been the fastest Sri Lankan batsman to score 1000 runs (Roy Dias in 27 Innings) but still has a chance to equal the record. Dhananjaya De Silva made a quiet 87 run contribution (average 29).
Dasun Shanaka did not have the best form with the bat (6,30 and 13) but was a very happy captain in the end with the series win, especially by the way his bowlers performed. Dushmantha Chameera who went wicketless in the first game picked up 2 wickets each in the next games and also became the man of the match yesterday with a valuable contribution of 29 runs with the bat. He now becomes the highest wicket-taker for the year with 20 wickets in 14 matches.
The talk of yesterday’s match who inspired the series win with his Ajantha Mendis like unorthodox bowling, former St. Benedict’s mystery spinner Maheesh Theekshana made a dream debut by picking up a wicket on his very first ball and went on to finish with 4 for 37. He becomes the first Sri Lankan bowler to pick up 4 wickets on debut and joins the rare club of wickets on debut in the first ball that includes 3 other Sri Lankans and he was the overall 28th bowler to achieve this. Wanindu Hasaranga also picked up 4 wickets in 3 games.
The South Africans with just 1 win had several questions on how they need to attack the Sri Lankan spinners who did the most damage. However, Jannenman Malan scored a century in the 2nd ODI and Rassie Van Der Dussen became the fastest South African to score 1000 runs, on par with Quinton De Kock (21 Innings) who is to play in the T20. Their bowling was mainly by their spinners Keshav Maharaj and Thabriaz Shamsi, where the latter was the highest wicket-taker in the series with 8.
For Sri Lanka, most of their players made valuable contributions towards the series win, with either the bat or ball. This young team will look to carry on the momentum they got from the ODI series, as well as the previous T20 series against India. South Africa will not be defeated too easily as they will look to get their revenge in the T20 series and Sri Lanka will hope to repeat the same success in the shorter format.
©Akila Seneviratne –SriLankaSpots.com
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