Pallekelle bathed in sunshine:

South Africans will not be easy beats

Batting first could be advantageous:

By Dr. Elmo Rodrigopulle

Now that the South Africans have regained their winning streak, they will be oozing with confidence when they confront Sri Lanka in the fourth game of the Dialog Trophy one-day international at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium, here today under lights.

When the South Africans took the field on Friday, they were down, but not out.

They had to win the third game to keep the five match series alive. Had they succumbed, the remaining two games would have been only of academic interest.

Full credit to the South Africans for producing a grand all round

effort which helped them win the third clash convincingly by 56 runs.

They wrung the changes intelligently and it paid dividends.

Hours before the game it rained heavily. But thankfully it cleared a couple of hours before starting time and with both the ground and the wicket kept covered, a prompt start was possible.

Skipper Abraham de Villiers had a broad smile on his face when he won the all important toss and decided to bat first on a wicket that was expected to play easy although being on the slow side.

But their batting ran into a bit of turbulence and at 154 for 7, it looked as though they would be dismissed well below the 200-run mark.

But a punishing knock of 85 in 72 balls with 4 fours and 5 sixes by left hander David Miller who put on an unbroken 69 in 45 balls with Ryan McLaren 14 took the visitors to a competitive 222 for 7 in 50 overs.

It was good clean hitting by Miller, which set the tone for Sri Lanka’s big hitting left hander Thisara ‘Panda’ Perera to show Millerand the South Africans what their man could do, he can do better.

When it came to staging his show and with Sri Lanka in the dumps on 93 for 7, Perera took left arm spinner Robin Petersen by the scruff of his neck and wrung him for 5 sixes all over mid wicket and a straight lofted four to plunder 34 runs in that over.

Whereas Miller had five sixes and 4 fours, Perera went one better, battering 5 sixes and 5 fours. With Rangana Herath he put on a blistering 72 in 68 balls and coincidentally it was also for the 8th wicket. But the ask was too much and Perera who had to chance his arm if he was to bring Sri Lanka a surprise win fell for 65 in 49 balls.

Tsotsobe’s menacing pace What caused the Lanka batting debacle was the menacing pace, bounce and swing of left arm pace bowler Lonwabo Tsotsobe.

He stuffed the first three Lankan batsmen – Tillekeratne Dilshan 6, Kumar Sangakara zero and Upul Tharanga 5 and that signalled the beginning of the end for the Lankans. Now that they have regained the all important confidence and the winning combination, the South Africans are not likely to make any changes for this important clash today and if they win, the final game in Colombo will be a cracker.

As for the Lankans, it was apparent that complacency had set in and so the tinkering with the team that won them the first two games.

What changes they will make for this game will be interesting to watch.As for us the team winning the toss and batting first should be on the victory podium. At the time of writing Pallekele is bathed in sunshine, but there is the possibility of the weather turning fickle.

Pallekele, Saturday