Shamsi and spinners give South Africa series winning lead

Monday, 13 September 2021 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Woeful Sri Lanka rolled over for lowest total (103) against Proteas

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

South African spinners led by their number one ranked bowler Tabraiz Shamsi bamboozled Sri Lanka to a

Tabraiz Shamsi celebrates taking the wicket of Sri Lanka captain Dasun Shanaka

Aiden Markram who took a career best 3 for 21 in action

Kusal Perera drives during his knock of 30

South African opener Quinton de Kock on his way to scoring his 10th T20I 50

comprehensive nine-wicket defeat to seal the fate of the three-match T20I series giving them a winning 2-0 lead at the R Premadasa Stadium yesterday.

It was South Africa’s third consecutive series win and sixth straight win in the format going into the T20 World Cup following victories over West Indies (3-2) and Ireland (3-0) before this.

Shamsi with his left-arm wrist spin took 3 for 20 to take the Man of the Match award, aided by a career best return of 3/21 by part time spinner Aiden Markram and 2/12 by Bjorn Fortuin bowled Sri Lanka out for 103 off 18.1 overs to equal their lowest total against South Africa (103-9) in 2013.

South Africa knocked off the runs without raising much sweat, reaching their moderate target in 14.1 overs with Quinton de Kock and Reeza Henricks (18) wiping out more than 50% of the target score by putting on 62 for the first wicket off 8.2 overs.

A brief stoppage for rain with South Africa requiring 39 off 66 balls couldn’t stop their advance, and when play resumed de Kock completed his tenth half-century in this format and with Aiden Markram (21*) saw his team home with an effortless knock of 58 off 48 balls (7 fours).

Winning the toss and taking first lease of the wicket it was a substandard piece of batting by Sri Lanka as the South African batters showed on a spin assisted pitch. It was either the South African spinners were too good for our batters or that Sri Lankan spinners bowled poorly on it.

Sri Lanka sorted out one problem of not scoring enough runs in the first power play but they could not sustain that start. Following the return of Kusal Perera to the fold after injury and COVID-19, Sri Lanka improved on their first T20I score of 34-1 by scoring 52-2. But the downside of it was that they lost their remaining eight wickets for the addition of only 51 runs in 12.1 overs.

Dinesh Chandimal although he top scored for Sri Lanka in the first match with a career best 65 not out faced 22 of the 36 balls in the power play and scored only 18 in Sri Lanka’s score of 34-1. Trying to make amends and force the pace on this occasion he holed out to Maharaj off Nortje for 5 yesterday.

Rajapaksa on the back of three consecutive ducks opened his account with a hook shot for 4 and followed it up with a stunning six over extra cover off Rabada to get off the dreaded hat-tricks of ducks behind him. But his stay at the wicket was short-lived when he hit back a tame return catch to Markram off a full toss after scoring a boundary filled 20 off 13 balls (3 fours, 1 six).

Markram also picked up the wicket of Perera for 30 trapping him lbw on the sweep. As for the rest of the batting it looked in total disarray with no clear plan against the South African spinners who enjoyed a rollicking time out in the middle.

A spot of bother for Sri Lanka was that Kusal Perera did not take the field when South Africa batted. He was reported to have a swelling on his right shoulder, an injury from which he had recovered. In fact he batted with a bandage on his injured right arm which raises the question whether he has fully recovered from the injury.