Image courtesy of: Zee news

Sangakkara single-handedly knocked out South Africa

Sri Lanka wicketkeeper-batsman Kumar Sangakkara stole the show during this match and looked to be in formidable touch as he recorded a career-best 169 runs against South Africa to hand Sri Lanka a crushing 180-run victory and a 1-0 lead in the five-match series.

Sangakkara was well supported by Upul Tharanga and Mahela Jayawardene in the batting department, as both of them managed to record scores in the forties before being dismissed.

South Africa captain AB de Villiers won the toss and surprisingly elected to bowl first on a pitch which looked to be a batsman’s dream.

Pace bowler Chris Morris made the early breakthrough for South Africa as he cleaned up opener Tillakaratne Dilshan for just 10 runs.

However, from then on it was all Sri Lanka as Tharanga and Sangakkara recorded a 70-run partnership before Tharanga was dismissed seven runs shy of his half-century.

The veteran duo of Sangakkara and Jayawardene continued to wear South Africa down as the pair registered yet another 50-run partnership before Morne Morkel crashed the party and picked up the wicket of Jayawardene, who was on 42.

By this time Sangakkara had already passed his own half-century and after the dismissal of Jayawardene, he accelerated his scoring rate drastically.

Sangakkara absolutely hammered the Proteas’ bowling attack all over the ground and looked to be like a man possessed.

The wicketkeeper-batsman soon brought up his century, but did not stop there, as he continued to lead the charge against the South Africans.

With the number of overs remaining dwindling, Sangakkara pushed his batting into the next gear and reached 150 almost before anyone could blink.

Sangakkara’s blitz finally came to an end on 169 after he was caught off the bowling of Aaron Phangiso.

Sangakkara had single-handedly cut South Africa down to their knees with his 169 runs off 137 balls, which included 18 boundaries and six maximums.

The partnership between Sangakkara and Lahiru Thirimanne was worth 123 runs, with the wicketkeeper-batsman scoring 100 of those runs by himself.

Sri Lanka finished off their 50 overs on an outstanding score of 320.

Morkel was the most successful South African bowler with two wickets, while Morris, Phangiso and Ryan McLaren all took one wicket apiece.

Chasing 321 to win, South Africa were in trouble from ball one as Sri Lanka pace spearhead Lasith Malinga removed South African opener Colin Ingram with an absolute beaut of a yorker.

Alviro Petersen somewhat stabilised the South African innings with a quickfire 29, but the pressure of chasing such a huge score soon got to him and he was dismissed by Thisara Perera.

Perera and Dilshan completely ripped through the South African middle order and soon interim captain Dinesh Chandimal brought in spinner Rangana Herath to polish off the tail, which he did with little difficulty.

South Africa were bowled out for 140 with over 18 overs remaining.

Perera and Herath were responsible for causing the most damage as they picked up three wickets apiece, while Dilshan took two and Malinga and Shaminda Eranga chipped in with one wicket each.

De Villiers was disappointed with his team’s performance, but vowed that his side would “fight back”.

“Its not the end of the series, I know my boys will fight back,” he said. “Not a lot of positives, but we can only improve. It is mentally hard to accept. But we will fight back. [Our record in SA] is something we are aware of, but we would like to win the series. We missed Hash [Amla], he is one of our class players. We were way below par but I know what the players are capable of, the second game is on the same field, we know the conditions quite well now.”

Chandimal was pleased with the blowout victory on his debut as ODI captain.

“This is my first game, good to start on winning note,” he said. “Credit to the batsmen first of all. Sanga and Mahela are wily old foxes, they know how to do it. We learn lots from Sanga. I have three former captains, they give lot of advice to me on the field.”

Sangakkara was the obvious choice when it came to the Man of the Match award, and the 35-year-old said: “We had a bit of luck to start. Upul batted well. When he got out Mahela came in and raised the tempo, he had nearly caught up with me when he got out. It then became a bit easier. It was a bit two-paced, it was about facing enough deliveries and get going, I took 34 overs to get going but I stuck in there. Morkel bowled good spells, it was about absorbing that and targeting the others.”