50 overs South Africa 299 for 7 (de Villiers 96, Smith 68) v Sri Lanka
Live scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Live scorecard and ball-by-ball details
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Related Links
Players/Officials:
AB de Villiers
| Graeme Smith
Series/Tournaments:
Sri Lanka tour of South Africa
Teams:
South Africa
| Sri Lanka
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South Africa lost their way from 242 for 3 in the final quarter of their
innings, subsiding to 299 after 350 had looked comfortably achievable
when AB de Villiers was taking the Sri Lanka bowling apart. Their
anti-climactic effort was still much better than Sri Lanka's best in
three previous games and despite a flat Kimberley track, will require a
serious chase from the visitors.
Till de Villiers fell in the 41st over, South Africa had taken advantage
of a listless attack to race towards a huge total. The under-pressure
Graeme Smith made only his second half-century in 17 innings and
prepared a solid base for the middle order in an 84-run opening
partnership with Alviro Petersen. de Villiers promoted himself to No. 3
and raced to 50 off 31 deliveries, peppering the extra cover rope with
lofted boundaries as a clueless bowling attack fell apart.
de Villiers' dismissal for 96 in the 41st over sucked all momentum from
the innings with South Africa adding only 48 more in the remaining nine
overs.
Sri Lanka had seemed resigned to chasing a tall score after South Africa
surged to 171 for 1 in the 24th over. Having already lost the series
0-3 and under fire from the sports ministry back home for their
continued poor performance after the World Cup, they looked the deflated
side they are at the moment. Tillakaratne Dilshan rotated his bowlers
furiously. When that did not work, he brought himself on. When even that
did not work, he had nothing else to turn to. He brought on Sachithra
Senanayake to bowl twice in the Powerplay, and on both occasions, the
debutant offspinner was carted for runs.
Smith, who had been subdued throughout the series, was allowed to find
much-needed form as Sri Lanka fed his strength, bowling on the leg
stump. From the moment he worked Lasith Malinga for consecutive
boundaries, through fine leg and midwicket, in the third over, Smith's
struggle for runs was over. He soon developed the confidence to loft the
debutant offspinner Sachithra Senanayake over long-on for six. In all,
57 of Smith's 68 runs came on the leg side before he fell, working
Malinga straight to midwicket.
While Smith had the poor lines to cash in on, de Villiers needed no help
from the bowlers. He put on a display of effortless hitting, making
room and carving the offspin of Senanayake and Dilshan over extra cover.
It made no difference where the spinners bowled - even deliveries fired
in on leg stump met with the same fate as they disappeared over extra
cover.
Dilshan tried the left-arm spin of Rangana Herath, who had broken the
opening stand earlier by getting Petersen to hole out to deep midwicket.
de Villiers welcomed him with a six over long-on and a fine sweep for
four. A beleaguered Dilshan turned to his trump card Malinga. de
Villiers drilled him for four through cover.
Nuwan Kulasekara gave the visitors some respite when he trapped Colin
Ingram leg-before with a full delivery. The scoring-rate, which was
comfortably above seven earlier, now started dipping. Duminy was unable
to keep up the pace, and even de Villiers tapered off, making his final
46 runs off 45 deliveries after having reached a half-century off 31.
South Africa still had a shot at 350 but Thisara Perera, who had gone
for 26 off his first two overs, removed Duminy and de Villiers in his
next two. Duminy tickled one through to the wicketkeeper while de
Villiers was bowled after moving too far across to a slower delivery.
Faf du Plessis came and went, but the lower order sensibly batted out
the remaining overs to push South Africa to one short of 300, the
second-highest ODI total in Kimberley
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