Image courtesy of: CNN IBN
Chandimal’s ODI captaincy record now reads two wins and zero losses
After hammering South Africa by 180 runs in the first ODI, in which wicketkeeper-batsman Kumar Sangakkara recorded his career-best score of 169, Sri Lanka continued their winning ways, beating the Proteas by 17 runs, despite the rain interruptions.
With heavy rain having fallen prior to the game, it was quite surprising when interim Sri Lanka captain Dinesh Chandimal won the toss and elected to bat first as most skippers would have looked to make use of the moisture on the pitch.
His decision looked to backfire early into the innings as opener Upul Tharanga was dismissed for just three runs by Morne Morkel.
A 59-run partnership between the veteran batting duo of Tillakaratne Dilshan and Sangakkara stabilised the Sri Lankan innings before Aaron Phangiso picked up the all-important wicket of Sangakkara, who was looking threatening on 37.
Dilshan also found himself back in the pavilion relatively soon after as he threw his wicket away just seven runs short of what would have been an outstanding half-century.
With the Sri Lankan middle order failing to fire once again, captain Chandimal decided to shoulder the responsibility and he did not disappoint the home fans as he helped Sri Lanka post a score of 223 with a steady knock of 43 off 51 balls, which included four boundaries.
Sri Lanka ended on 223 with three balls remaining when the rain returned and the umpires decided that there would not be enough time to play 50 overs per side and thus announced that South Africa would need 122 to win from 21 overs.
Morkel was pick of the South African bowlers with three wickets, but he was also well supported by Phangiso, Robin Peterson, Chris Morris, Ryan McLaren and Jean Paul (JP) Duminy, all of whom took one wicket apiece.
Chasing a relatively simple target of 122 to win, South Africa were dealt two early blows as Peterson was dismissed for just three runs by a spectacular Lasith Malinga yorker and Duminy followed in quick succession as he was caught behind off the bowling of Thisara Perera.
Despite Alviro Petersen’s 24 off 28 balls, South Africa soon found themselves in deep trouble as he, captain AB de Villiers and Faf Du Plessis were all dismissed in quick succession.
David Miller and McLaren put up an excellent fight, but in the end it just proved to be too much for them to handle and Sri Lanka took a 2-0 lead thanks to some brilliant bowling.
Spinner Rangana Herath caused the most damage with two wickets, while Malinga, Dilshan and Shaminda Eranga all took one wicket each.
De Villiers viewed this game as a step in the right direction for South Africa as they did not get absolutely thrashed by a huge margin.
“Much better game from us, the bowling [was] okay, the batsmen let us down, very disappointing,” he said. “It’s not over yet, three big games coming up for us now. Amla is injured, not too serious, hopefully we’ll get him ready for the next match. He was scheduled to come out to bat after the next wicket fell. I think we have the potential and the talent in the batting unit.”
Chandimal was pleased to have increased his ODI captaincy record to two wins and zero losses and, as a bonus, he was also named the Man of the Match for his quickfire 43.
“When I went to bat, we were four down, I just assessed the pitch and then played my normal game,” he said. “We played on the same pitch before, that’s why I opted to bat first. Angelo will come in for the next game, we have our fingers crossed for winning the game.”