Player of the Match
Player of the Match

END OF OVER:
50 | 17 Runs 1 Wkt | SA: 363/7 | RR: 7.26

  • Andile Phehlukwayo24 (11b)
  • Akila Dananjaya10-0-81-1
  • Thisara Perera10-0-75-4

Prachith Kausha: "Bleading. My eyes are just bleeding. Bat first. Can't set a total. Defend it. No wicket-taking bowlers. Bowl First. No Wicket-taking bowlers + death Bowling non-existent. Chase it. Are you kidding me? As a 90s kid who watched Sri Lanka reaching three World Cup finals & three World T20 finals, this is just too much ."

Pierre van Niek: "100 more than Matthews thought they would have to chase."

Dush88: "Quite a tough ask for the fragile SL batting lineup." -- That's an understatement. Anyway, we'll see how they go in a short while, when Sreshth returns to start off the chase.

1.46pm A brutal finish from South Africa. They've scored 71 in the last five overs, 114 in the last ten, and finished on 363. Sri Lanka's highest successful chase so far is 324.

Before the match, Angelo Mathews spoke of his side's weaknesses on ODI pitches that don't offer too much help to the spinners, and we saw evidence of it here. The fast bowlers were wayward early on, offering too much width to Hashim Amla, and there was no real improvement through the innings. Their senior-most quick, Suranga Lakmal, didn't even get to finish his quota of 10 overs, with Akila Dananjaya trusted to bowl the 48th and 50th instead. Akila ends up with unflattering figures of 1 for 81, but he bowled better than those figures would suggest, and bore the brunt of having to bowl in those unforgiving end overs. He has a big heart and keeps challenging batsmen with flight, and generally bowls good lengths. He'll only get better with more experience.

49.6
W
Dananjaya to Mulder, OUT, finally, lands one in the blockhole. Looks to clear his front leg and whip it away, only manages a thick inside edge into his front leg

PWA Mulder b Dananjaya 2 (3b 0x4 0x6) SR: 66.66

49.6
1w
Dananjaya to Mulder, 1 wide, now he bowls a wide outside off stump to the right-hander too. This is really difficult, a spinner bowling the last over against a rampant side
49.6
2w
Dananjaya to Phehlukwayo, 2 wides, sees Phehlukwayo looking to make room and fires it wide outside off stump - too wide. Keeper fumbles and they run a bye as well
49.5
1
Dananjaya to Mulder, 1 run, full on the stumps, whipped to deep square leg
49.4
1
Dananjaya to Phehlukwayo, 1 run, full on off stump, doesn't quite get to the pitch with his lofted drive and ends up chipping on the bounce to sweeper cover
49.4
1w
Dananjaya to Phehlukwayo, 1 wide, quicker one, ends up sliding it down the leg side
49.3
6
Dananjaya to Phehlukwayo, SIX, a bit slower now and Phehlukwayo is out of his crease in a flash to launch it high over long-on. Made a lot of room, and Akila couldn't do anything about it, even as he tried to fire it down leg
49.2
4
Dananjaya to Phehlukwayo, FOUR, shot! Phehlukwayo has been brilliant so far, very decisive with what he wants to do. Low full-toss on middle stump and he reverse-sweeps over backward point
49.1
1
Dananjaya to Mulder, 1 run, short outside off, carrom ball, slapped to deep point

Dananjaya to bowl the final over.

Sri Lanka 2nd innings Partnerships

WktRunsPlayers
1st20WU TharangaN Dickwella
2nd17WU TharangaMDKJ Perera
3rd26MDKJ PereraBKG Mendis
4th18NLTC PereraBKG Mendis
5th43AD MathewsBKG Mendis
6th31AD MathewsDM de Silva
7th95DM de SilvaA Dananjaya
8th23RAS LakmalDM de Silva
9th2RAS LakmalNGRP Jayasuriya
10th10RAS LakmalCBRLS Kumara