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| January 18, 2006 | Wednesday | Zilhaj 17, 1426 |
Sri Lanka shrug off poor form to humble Proteas
BRISBANE, Jan 17: A determined Sri Lanka shrugged off a recent run of poor one-day form and humbled South Africa in the tri-series limited overs competition at the Gabba on Tuesday.
Sri Lanka achieved a 94-run victory, their seventh straight win in One-day Internationals against South Africa, despite being humiliated in their opening tri-series match against Australia.
The Sri Lankans made 282-6, spurred largely by a 112-run second-wicket partnership between Jehan Mubarak and Kumar Sangakkara, and then bowled their rivals out for just 188 with 5.4 overs remaining on a perfect batting wicket.
The victory raised questions about the decision by South African captain Graeme Smith to send the Sri Lankans in first in such conditions.
Smith also suffered yet another failure with the bat, making just three before being trapped lbw by Chaminda Vaas.
Sri Lanka’s cause was helped by the late withdrawal of brilliant South African all-rounder Jacques Kallis with an elbow injury.
But his absence was no excuse for the Proteas’ poor performance in the field, dropping two catches. They also ran poorly between the wickets with top order batsmen Jacques Rudolph and Herschelle Gibbs both victims of run outs.
Mark Boucher with 62 off 95 balls and Rudolph with 53 off 79 were the only two batsmen to offer serious resistance.
Man-of-the-Match Sangakkara said his team had got the simple things right after their poor showing against Australia. Before Tuesday they had just two wins from their last 12 one-day matches.
“It was getting the basics right, doing our homework properly and getting prepared,” he said. “Let the result take care of itself and just worry about what we can control.
“I think we have always played well against them. We have played some tough cricket against them in South Africa. The past few months have been a tough time and we are just started to turn it around.”
Sangakkara said his team needed to keep their heads down and stick to the basics for the remainder of the series.
“Do our basics right, bat well, field well and then strangle the opposition,” he said.
His partnership with Mubarak had carried the Sri Lankans to 145-1 and ended when Mubarak was trapped lbw for 61 off 69 balls, including nine boundaries.
Sangakkara went on to make a stylish 88 off 109 balls.
The South Africans lost their last five wickets for just 36 but never really seemed to be in the hunt, especially against the spinners.
Leg-spinner Malinga Bandara finished with 3-31 while seamer Vaas took 2-21.
Scoreboard
SRI LANKA:
W.U. Tharanga c Boucher b Kruger 16
J. Mubarak lbw b Botha 61
K.C. Sangakkara c Smith b Pollock 88
T.M. Dilshan c Gibbs b Zondeki 15
M.S. Atapattu run out 33
D.P.M.D. Jayawardene c Prince b Botha 14
R.P. Arnold not out 15
W.P.U.J.C. Vaas not out 14
EXTRAS (LB-12, W-8, NB-6) 26
TOTAL (for six wkts, 50 overs) 282
FALL OF WKTS: 1-33, 2-145, 3-172, 4-211, 5-244, 6-259.
DID NOT BAT: K.M.D.N. Kulasekara, P.D.R.L. Perera, M. Muralitharan.
BOWLING: Pollock 10-1-39-1 (1nb, 1w); Kruger 8-0-61-1 (3w); Hall 10-0-58-0 (3nb, 1w); Zondeki 9-0-49-1 (1nb, 2w); Botha 10-0-49-2; Smith 3-0-14–0.
SOUTH AFRICA:
G.C. Smith lbw b Vaas 3
H.H. Dippenaar b Kulasekara 10
J.A. Rudolph run out 53
H.H. Gibbs run out 7
A.G. Prince c Kulasekara b Bandara 29
M.V. Boucher c Dilshan b Bandara 62
J.M. Kemp b Bandara 10
S.M. Pollock c Atapattu b Vaas 4
A.J. Hall b Muralitharan 4
J. Botha lbw b Muralitharan 2
G.J.P. Kruger not out 0
EXTRAS (LB-1, W-3) 4
TOTAL (all out, 44.2 overs) 188
FALL OF WKTS: 1-8, 2-30, 3-57, 4-93, 5-127, 6-152, 7-179, 8-184, 9-188.
BOWLING: Vaas 8-2-21-2; Perera 6-0-38-0 (1w); Kulasekara 6-0-24-1 (2w); Dilshan 6-0-29-0; Muralitharan 9-1-34-2; Bandara 8.2-0-31-3; Mubarak 1-0-10-0.
RESULT: Sri Lanka won by 94 runs.
UMPIRES: D.J. Harper (Australia) and Aleem Dar (Pakistan).
TV UMPIRE: P.D. Parker (Australia).
MATCH REFEREE: J.J. Crowe (New Zealand).
MAN-OF-THE-MATCH: Kumar Sangakkara.
NEXT MATCH: Australia v South Africa at Melbourne on Friday.—Agencies
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