Saturday Sep 21, 2024
Saturday Sep 21, 2024
Tuesday, 4 June 2024 01:21 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
On a pitch that could hardly be rated as suited for T20 cricket, two full member nations struggled to put bat to ball in challenging conditions with South Africa eventually winning the opening Group D fixture of the T20 World Cup by six wickets against Sri Lanka with 22 balls to spare in a low scoring game played at New York’s drop-in pitch on Monday.
The two-paced pitch didn’t offer any liberties to the batsmen to free their arms and it was a real struggle for them to put bat to ball.
South Africa fielding a four-prong pace attack made full use of the slow surface to bundle Sri Lanka out for their lowest total in T20I cricket – 77 off 19.1 overs. Even though Sri Lanka fought back through their Captain Wanindu Hasaranga who took two wickets in his first two overs, the target was too small for the Lankan bowlers to successfully defend. South Africa knocked the runs off with two of their big strikers of the ball Heinrich Klaasen and David Miller at the crease.
In hindsight one could question why Sri Lanka chose to bat first after winning the toss on an unknown surface which eventually proved disastrous for them.
The first two overs set up South Africa. Pathum Nissanka tried to break the shackles and offered Ottneil Baartman a wicket off his first ball in World Cups. Things then went from bad to worse for Sri Lanka as Anrich Nortje and Keshav Maharaj ripped through the middle-order. Sri Lanka didn’t help themselves contributing to their own downfall with some careless batting, a few mishits and desperate slogging that saw their batting in total disarray.
Nortje came into the tournament under a cloud after injury, but he finished with 4 for 7 in bowler friendly conditions to take the Player of the Match award. It was his best performance of his T20I career and the best figures by a South African bowler in T20 World Cups. Kagiso Rabada helped himself to a couple of late strikes and the rest of the South African bowlers were impressive as well.
Sri Lanka’s score of 77 was their lowest ever in T20I, the previous lowest being 82 against India at Vizag in 2016.
South Africa having assessed the pitch didn’t go for boundaries but played the ball on its merits and picked up the singles and twos and the odd boundary to get to the total which was not a challenging one despite the trickiness of the pitch. Sri Lanka would have rued not getting to a total around 120 which would have given them a fighting chance of pulling off a win.
SCOREBOARD
SRI LANKA
P Nissanka c Klaasen b Baartman 3
Kusal Mendis c Stubbs b Nortje 19
Kamindu Mendis c Hendricks b Nortje 11
W Hasaranga st de Kock b Maharaj 0
S Samarawickrama b Maharaj 0
C Asalanka c Hendricks b Nortje 6
A Mathews c Baartman b Nortje 17
D Shanaka b Rabada 9
M Theekshana not out 7
M Pathirana c Markram b Rabada 0
N Thushara run out 0
Extras (lb-3, w-3) 6
Total (all out, 19.1 overs) 77
Fall of wickets: 1-13 (Nissanka), 2-31 (Kamindu Mendis), 3-32 (Hasaranga), 4-32 (Samarawickrama), 5-40 (Kusal Mendis), 6-45 (Asalanka), 7-68 (Shanaka), 8-70 (Mathews), 9-71 (Pathirana), 10-77 (Thushara).
Bowling: Jansen 3.1-0-15-0 (1w), Rabada 4-1-21-2 (1w), Baartman 4-1-9-1 (1w), Maharaj 4-0-22-2, Nortje 4-0-7-4.
SOUTH AFRICA
Q de Kock c and b Hasaranga 20
R Hendricks c Kamindu Mendis b Thushara 4
A Markram c Kamindu Mendis b Shanaka 12
T Stubbs c Asalanka b Hasaranga 13
H Klaasen not out 19
D Miller not out 6
Extras (lb-3, w-2, nb-1) 6
Total (4 wickets, 16.2 overs) 80
Fall of wickets: 1-10 (Hendricks), 2-23 (Markram), 3-51 (de Kock), 4-58 (Stubbs).
Did not bat: M Jansen, K Maharaj, K Rabada, A Nortje, O Baartman.
Bowling: Mathews 3-0-16-0 (1w), Thushara 3-0-18-1 (1nb), Shanaka 3-1-6-1, Pathirana 3-0-12-0 (1w), Hasaranga 3.2-0-22-2, Theekshana 1-0-3-0.
