Francois “Faf” du Plessis made the top score and pulled off a spectacular run out as South Africa clinched a series victory in the third one-day international (ODI) against World Cup finalists Sri Lanka at Chevrolet Park on Tuesday.
Mainly because of du Plessis making 72 off 74 balls, South Africa were four ahead of the Duckworth/Lewis par score when rain stopped play.
The home side were on 179 for five after 34 overs, in reply to Sri Lanka’s 266 for nine. The result gave South Africa a winning 3-0 lead in the five-match series and extended the tourists’ poor run to six successive ODI defeats.
Run-outs played a crucial role in both innings.
Sri Lanka made a competitive total, but it might have been considerably higher if their two star batsmen, Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene, had not been run out, both by direct hits.
Upul Tharanga (58) and captain Tillakaratne Dilshan (33) put on 94 for Sri Lanka’s first wicket.
Sangakkara, batting at No. 3, looked set to take full advantage of the good start on an easy-paced pitch as he stroked his way to 38 off 37 balls.
However, Sangakkara fell to a superb piece of fielding by du Plessis, who dived far to his left at backward-point to stop a cut by Dinesh Chandimal, then hit the stumps at the batsman’s end, with Sangakkara stranded after the batsmen hesitated.
Jayawardene was run out for 15, four balls into the batting power play in the 36th over, when he was sent back by Chandimal, slipped as he turned and could not recover to beat an accurate throw from Colin Ingram at mid-off.
“Mahela’s and Sanga’s run outs cost us 20 runs,” said Dilshan, who added that some sloppy fielding by his team had cost another 20 runs when South Africa batted.
Lasith Malinga made two early strikes in the South Africa innings, bowling Graeme Smith and Colin Ingram, and South Africa slumped to 52 for three when Alviro Petersen missed a reverse sweep and was LBW to Dilshan.
Du Plessis and J.P. Duminy put on 61 in a fourth-wicket stand marked by aggressive running between the wickets, before Duminy fell to a direct hit by Nuwan Kulasekera from mid-off.
Du Plessis went to a career-best score before he became another run-out victim, with Angelo Mathews making a quick pick-up and throw from cover.
Rain started to fall in the 33rd over, at the end of which South Africa were one behind according to the Duckworth/Lewis method.
Dilshan brought Malinga back into the attack, but the unorthodox fast bowler conceded eight runs to South African captain A.B. de Villiers and Albie Morkel before the rain intensified and play was halted.
On a pitch which offered no assistance to the bowlers, Tharanga and du Plessis were the only batsmen to achieve half-centuries.
Meanwhile, the Sri Lankan government has ordered a probe into the national team’s “crisis situation,” an official said yesterday.
Sri Lankan Minister of Sports Mahindananda Aluthgamage asked the country’s cricket governing body to investigate and recommend remedial action to end the side’s recent poor performances, his spokesman Harsha Abeykoon said.
“Carefully investigate the current crisis situation in the national cricket team and report back to me within a week,” Aluthgamage told the chairman of Sri Lanka Cricket.
The probe was ordered a week after another minister slammed the side, blaming lack of team spirit for a 258-run thrashing by South Africa, the side’s worst ODI defeat.
The Sri Lankan government is often accused of meddling in the sport and recent uncontested elections for the cricket board were mired in allegations of interference.
Sri Lanka did reach the final of last year’s cricket World Cup, but since the retirement of bowling star Muttiah Muralitharan in July 2010, the team have won only one Test match.
Skipper Tillakaratne Dilshan has blamed his side’s inconsistent results on the nation’s weak domestic scene.
Some players have complained about months of unpaid wages as the cricket board struggles with debts of US$69 million after building two new venues and revamping a third ground for the World Cup.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but