Rangana Herath took two crucial wickets as Sri Lanka defeated South Africa in a rain-affected one-day international in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on Tuesday, taking a 2-0 lead in the five-match series.
South Africa, set a revised target of 176 from 29 overs, were 104-5 in 21 overs when a heavy downpour at the R. Premadasa Stadium forced the match to be called off.
With 121-5 being the par score at that stage, the Proteas lost by 17 runs to suffer their second defeat in the series following the 180-run loss in the first match on Saturday.
Photo: AFP
Left-arm spinner Herath trapped opener Alviro Petersen leg before wicket for 24 and had Faf du Plessis caught behind to reduce the Proteas to 69-5 by the 14th over.
David Miller (22 not out) and Ryan McLaren (14 not out) put on 35 runs for an unbroken sixth-wicket stand before rain ruined their hopes of pulling off an upset.
South Africa were dealt another blow as star batsman Hashim Amla injured his left knee while fielding and was rushed to hospital for precautionary scans.
Amla, who had been sidelined for the first match due to a strained back, was unable to bat and faces a race against time to be fit for the third match in Pallekele, Sri Lanka, tomorrow.
South Africa captain A.B. de Villiers vowed his team would fight back in the series.
“It’s not over yet, there are three big games coming for us now,” De Villiers said. “This was a much better game for us than the previous one. The bowling did OK, but the batting let us down. Hopefully, we will get Amla ready for the next match. The injury is not too serious.”
Earlier, fast bowler Morne Morkel claimed three for 34 as the hosts were restricted to 223-9 in 49.2 overs after they won the toss and elected to bat.
Sri Lanka’s stand-in captain Dinesh Chandimal and opener Tillakaratne Dilshan top-scored with 43 apiece, before heavy rain ended the innings with four deliveries still to be bowled.
South Africa regrouped after the heavy defeat in the first match to keep the free-stroking Sri Lanka batsmen in check on the slow wicket.
Sri Lanka lost opener Upul Tharanga in the fourth over before a second-wicket stand of 59 between Dilshan and Kumar Sangakkara helped them recover to 66-1 in the 18th over.
Sangakkara, who smashed a career-best 169 on Saturday, hit six boundaries in his 37, before he mistimed a drive off left-arm spinner Aaron Phangiso and was caught in the covers.
South Africa pegged the hosts back to 123-4 in 30 overs as Mahela Jayawardene was bowled by Robin Peterson for 17 and Dilshan was caught behind off Morkel soon after.
Chandimal boosted the total with four boundaries in his 51-ball innings.
Chandimal, who was named man of the match, said he would be happy to hand the captaincy back to Angelo Mathews, who served a two-match ban for slow over rates during the tri-nation series in the West Indies.
“Angelo will be back for the next game, hopefully we can seal the series there,” Chandimal said. “I knew the wicket was a bit slow, so it was better to bat first.”
Two Sri Lankan umpires officiated after Australia’s Rod Tucker, who was due to stand at one end, fell ill before the start.
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
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
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier