South Africa edge past Sri Lanka
Brad Morgan
29 March 2007
Matches in the group stage of the Cricket World Cup saw teams cashing in at the death, thumping bowlers to all corners of the grounds. When South Africa met Sri Lanka in a Super Eight clash in Guyana on Wednesday, a spectacular reversal of fortunes took place.
This was thanks in large part to the efforts of South Africa's Charl Langeveldt, whose 5 for 39 included a runless, three-wicket final over; and Sri Lanka's Lasith Malinga, who - with South Africa needing just four runs to win the contest - took an astonishing four wickets with four consecutive balls.
When the dust had cleared, the Proteas had secured a narrow one-wicket victory and two points for the Super Eights.
It was a significant win for the Proteas, because it ensured that they would remain the top ranked team in the world on 1 April, thus earning the side a US$150 000 bonus from the International Cricket Council.
"We dominated the game for 95 overs," SA captain Graeme
Smith said afterwards. "We did brilliantly to restrict them to 209, and then chase the way we did.
"We could have been a bit more clinical, but Sri Lanka will be a tough team to beat in this competition. We beat them in their home conditions. "When you win a tight game like that, it spurs you on," Smith added. "In the past, we've lost those games."
Early success
The teams clashed at The Providence Stadium in Georgetown on a new pitch, which made it a good toss to lose for SA skipper Graeme Smith. Sri Lanka's Mahela Jayawardene decision was to bat on a pitch that proved a little slow, with somewhat spongy bounce. It was, however, consistent.
Early on, Makhaya Ntini struck for South Africa, having Upul Tharanga caught at first slip by Justin Kemp for 12, with a delivery that angled away from the left-hander. The total was just 13.
That brought skipper Jayawardene to the middle to join veteran opener Sanath Jayasuriya. Together
the pair advanced the score from 13 to 45 as Jayasuriya went after Shaun Pollock with success, much as Australia's openers had done in Saints Kitts.
With Pollock's first four overs going for 32 runs, Graeme Smith decided to make an early change, bringing on Charl Langeveldt, who immediately found some swing with the new ball.
Decision rewarded
The SA captain's decision was soon rewarded as Langeveldt dismissed the dangerous Jayasuriya. The first delivery of the eleventh over came back at the batsman with some extra bounce. Jayasuriya slashed at it, but caught the ball high up on his bat, resulting in an easy looping catch for Jacques Kallis at cover.
Thanks to their fast start against Pollock's bowling, the Sri Lankans continued to maintain a decent scoring rate of about four-and-a-half runs an over. However, they had added only a further 20 runs to their total when Jayawardene, who has a strong record against South Africa, became
Langveldt's second victim.
Again, swing did the trick for the paceman as the Sri Lankan captain tried to turn a full ball to the leg side, but instead found a leading edge, resulting in a little pop up to AB de Villiers at cover. At 65 for 3 in the fifteenth over, the 1996 World Cup champions' innings had become perilously poised.
Seeking stability
Chamara Silva, the scorer of three fifties in succession in the World Cup, joined Kumar Sangakkara in the middle and the pair set about giving the innings some stability.
They carried the score to 90, but then, as he so often does, Andrew Hall struck to end the partnership. Sangakkara found himself cramped as he attempted to pull a short ball. It brushed his glove on its way through to wicketkeeper Mark Boucher who dived to his right to take the catch. His 38-ball innings produced 28 runs.
Eight runs later, with the score on 98, the Sri Lankans were reduced to five down, thanks to a
stunning run out by Herschelle Gibbs which echoed fielding coach Jonty Rhodes' famous run out of Inzamam ul-Haq in the 1992 World Cup.
Brilliant fielding
Facing Kallis, Silva dabbed the ball towards the point area and left his ground for a quick single. Tillekeratne Dilshan, at the non-striker's end, sent him back, but not soon enough.
Gibbs had closed quickly on the ball and with a full-length dive he destroyed the stumps before Silva could make it back to safety. His 27-ball innings had realised only nine runs and the Sri Lankans were in big trouble with half their wickets lost and less than 100 runs on the board.
That left Dilshan to engineer a rescue act with the new man in, Russel Arnold, and the two men did a good job of it. It was slow going at first, but they added 97 for the sixth wicket before Dilshan fell to Makhaya Ntini when his swing at a short one carried to Justin Kemp at third man.
Batting
collapse
Dilshan's 76-delivery 58 proved to be the highest score of the Sri Lankan innings. His dismissal, though, also precipitated a late batting collapse.
Thirteen runs after Dilshan departed, Arnold, who had just reached his 50, became the first victim in an extraordinary final over by Langeveldt after top edging a catch to Mark Boucher.
Three balls later, Farveez Maharoof fell for five as he perished in the chase for quick runs. A drive lofted high over extra cover was caught by Ntini, reducing Sri Lanka to 208 for 8.
The very next ball another wicket fell to Langeveldt when Chaminda Vaas found Herschelle Gibbs at long on as he went for the big one. He was out for a duck, and Langeveldt suddenly had himself a five-for.
Three wickets, no runs
His final over had produced three wickets at the cost of no runs, leaving him with a final analysis of 5 for 39 in his 10 overs.
Three balls later the Sri Lankan
innings was over as Muttiah Muralitharan tried to take on the arm of Shaun Pollock whose direct hit from backward point saw the star spinner depart for one.
From 208 for 6, Sri Lanka had dramatically slipped to 209 all out.
Apart from Langeveldt's heroics, Ntini shone with a haul of 2 for 26 in eight overs, while Hall claimed 1 for 33 in 9.3.
Rocked
A victory target of 210 looked very gettable for the Proteas, but they were rocked in the very first over when Vaas cleaned up De Villiers for a duck, clipping the top of his middle stump with a beautifully bowled ball that swung back into the right-hander.
That dismissal didn't look too serious as Smith and Kallis came together and kept the scoreboard ticking over, with Sri Lanka struggling to slow down the scoring rate.
As he had done in every previous match at the World Cup, Smith went to his fifty, mixing up aggression with good stroke-play. Kallis, meanwhile, maintained a
good scoring rate as he backed the skipper up and helped the total to 95.
Stumped
That's when the brilliant Muralitharan struck with a well-flighted delivery that drew Smith out of his ground. He went for a drive, but the spin took the ball away from the bat and, quick as a flash, Sangakkara whipped the bails off, sending Smith on his way.
His innings had lasted 65 balls and produced 59 runs, including seven fours and the first six on the new ground, which was, in fact, the only one of the innings. That made for quite a change after the bludgeoning bowlers in Group A took at the small Warner Park Stadium in Saint Kitts.
Kallis was joined by his Cape Cobras teammate, Herschelle Gibbs, and they settled down nicely together, nudging the score along towards what looked as if it would be a comfortable victory.
Double strike
After adding 65 runs, Gibbs fell to a well-taken low caught-and-bowled by
Murali, having scored 31 off 51 deliveries.
The very next ball Mark Boucher was out, LBW to the wily spinner for a duck, leaving the Proteas on 160 for 4 in the thirty-third over.
Justin Kemp survived a big shout for a catch on the hat-trick ball, but apart from helping Kallis put on 22 for the fifth wicket, he failed to deliver much before he was stumped by Sangakkara off Jaysuriya for just five.
Shaun Pollock joined Kallis in the middle and together they took South Africa to the edge of victory by reaching 206, only four runs short of the win, before Pollock was bowled by Malinga who, up until that point, had been expensive without tasting any success.
Not over yet!
Pollock, having scored 13 runs, was the sixth man out, but the game, it appeared, was already in the bag. Not so!
Andrew Hall became the second South African to fall to the first ball he faced as he spooned a fast yorker from Malinga to Tharanga at
cover.
The next over, the forty-sixth, yielded only a single by Kallis off the bowling of Vaas.
Hat-trick
Back came Malinga seeking a hat-trick, and he got it right. Kallis, the anchor of the South African innings, edged a full delivery to Sangakkara behind the wicket and he was gone for 86, scored from 110 balls. Suddenly South Africa had slumped to 207 for 8, still three runs shy of victory, with only two wickets in hand.
Makhaya Ntini entered the fray and just as quickly departed it, as he became the third South African to pick up a first-baller when he played all around a yorker from Malinga and was bowled.
It was the first time in the history of the World Cup that a bowler had picked up four wickets in four balls, and it guaranteed a nail-biting end to the contest.
Nearly home
After nearly being bowled on the first ball he faced, Langeveldt sneaked a run off the fifth delivery of
Malinga's over, lifting the South African total to 208 for 9.
Then, twice in the next over, a maiden, Vaas beat Langeveldt, opening up the opportunity for Malinga to snatch a stunning win for the Sri Lankans.
Peterson swung and missed the first ball of the over, but on the second delivery he caught a thick outside edge, with the ball flying wide of slip for four, and a hard-fought victory for South Africa by just one wicket.
With his late heroics, Malinga finished with 4 for 54 from 9.2 overs, while Muralitharan excelled with 3 for 34 from his 10 overs.
However, it was Charl Langeveldt who cracked the nod as man of the match for his 5 for 39, while Jacques Kallis must have come close thanks to his steady 86 in a low-scoring contest.
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