|
|
 |
 |
| Sunday, 29 August 2004 |
 |
|
 |
Sports |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
|
Lanka head for clean sweep as they make it 4-0 Sa'adi Thawfeeq reporting from Dambulla DAMBULLA, August 28 - Sri Lanka continued their dominance over South Africa when they stretched their winning sequence to four in a row in the five-match one-day series winning the fourth one-day international by a convincing margin of seven wickets at the Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium here today. An unfinished fourth wicket stand of 98 off 90 balls between man-of-the-match Kumar Sangakkara and acting captain Mahela Jayawardene steered Sri Lanka to this comfortable win with 23 balls to spare. Sangakkara finished on a stroke-filled 74 not out off 86 balls with six fours and Jayawardene made a classy 48 not out off 45 balls (5 fours). Earlier Avishka Gunawardene scored 52 off 64 balls (7 fours) and Saman Jayantha, a rather uncharacteristic 46 off 73 balls (1 four, 1 six). The only failure for Sri Lanka was Sanath Jayasuriya who was run out for eight. Sri Lanka built surpassed South Africa's total with a combination of useful partnerships of 59, 65 and 98. South Africa once again let themselves down when they dropped Gunawardene twice at 13 and 32 and Jayantha at 12, catches, which only made their task difficult in defending the total. Sri Lanka made a surprise decision to send South Africa to bat first on a pitch, which played far better than the one prepared for Wednesday's game. Once again the South African top order failed to deliver as they slumped to 115-5 in the 24th over. But on this occasion the experienced pair of Mark Boucher and Shaun Pollock who put together 64 off 105 balls rescued them. Pollock who made 54 in a losing cause in the second done-day game at R. Premadasa six days ago, completed his second half-century of the series and remained unbeaten on 52 scored off 69 balls with three fours and a six. A rather sedate Boucher's contribution was 27 off 69 balls. With Nicky Boje who scored 19 not out off 10 balls, Pollock added 40 off 26 balls in an unfinished eighth wicket stand that saw South Africa add 49 in the last five overs. It was difficult to fathom why Jayawardene leading Sri Lanka (in the absence of Marvan Atapattu who was rested for this game), gave Malinga the final over when he could have easily brought on someone like Maharoof who in six overs had one wicket for 20. Malinga went for 25 runs in his first four overs and then brought on for the final over conceded a further 15. Smith and Gibbs put on a run a ball 47 runs for the first wicket before Dilhara Fernando playing in his first game since the Zimbabwe tour in May clipped Gibbs' off bail as the batsman attempted to pull a ball across the line. Gibbs made 27 off as many balls with five fours. Maharoof followed with the big wicket of Jacques Kallis (playing in his 200th ODI) for seven getting through his defence with a ball that came back off the seam to bowl him. He was however informally cautioned by umpire Bowden for rubbing sun cream from his face onto the ball. The umpire also spoke to the captain Jayawardene about it. Rudolph and Smith added 52 off 65 balls and when the partnership seems to be blossoming out it ended in a disappointing run out. A poor call from Rudolph who played the ball to point saw him being run out by Maharoof's direct throw at the non-striker's end. Rudolph made 24 off 34 balls. When Duminy was trapped lbw by Lokuarachchi for a second ball duck South Africa had slumped to 115-5 after being 113-2 at one stage. Jayawardene employed the services of eight bowlers but it was the spinners who stifled the South African run rate with Jayasuriya, Lokuarachchi and Chandana conceding 93 runs off 27 overs for three wickets amongst them. Sri Lanka made four changes to their side with Jayantha, Fernando, Malinga and Maharoof replacing Atapattu, Vaas, Zoysa and Herath. South Africa included Peterson for his first game of the series ahead of Dawson.
SOUTH AFRICA INNINGS
G. Smith lbw Lokuarachchi 46
H. Gibbs b Fernando 27
J. Kallis b Maharoof 7
J. Rudolph run out 24
M. Boucher b Chandana 27
J. P. Duminy lbw Lokuarachchi 0
S. Pollock not out 52
L. Klusener st Sangakkara b Dilshan 12
N. Boje not out 19
EXTRAS (lb-3 nb-4 w-14) 21
TOTAL (for seven wickets, 50 overs) 235
DID NOT BAT: R.Peterson, M.Ntini
FALL OF WICKETS: 1-47 2-61 3-113 4-115 5-115 6-179 7-195
BOWLING: Malinga 5-0-40-0 (4nb), Fernando 5-0-28-1 (3w),
Maharoof 6-0-20-1 (2w), Dilshan 6-0-44-1 (1w),
Jayantha 1-0-7-0, Jayasuriya 10-2-24-0 (1w),
Lokuarachchi 10-0-39-2 (2w), Chandana 7-0-30-1 (5w)
SRI LANKA INNINGS
A. Gunawardene c Boucher b Ntini 52
S. Jayasuriya run out 8
S. Jayantha c Duminy b Peterson 46
K. Sangakkara not out 74
M. Jayawardene not out 48
EXTRAS (lb-4 nb-1 w-3) 8
TOTAL (for three wickets, 46.1 overs) 236
DID NOT BAT: T.Dilshan, U.Chandana, F.Maharoof,
K.Lokuarachchi, L.Malinga, D.Fernando
FALL OF WICKETS: 1-14 2-73 3-138
BOWLING: Pollock 7.1-1-24-0 (1nb), Kallis 9-0-49-0 (1w),
Klusener 6-0-38-0 (1w), Ntini 8-0-39-1,
Boje 8-0-36-0, Peterson 3-0-22-1,
Duminy 5-0-24-0 (1w)
|
|
News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security Produced by Lake House |
