Sri Lanka beat South Africa by 5 wickets in the third T20I, seal 2-1 series victory

[Abdullah719]

South Africa Squad
F Behardien*, TB de Bruyn, AB de Villiers, RR Hendricks, Imran Tahir, HG Kuhn, DA Miller, M Mosehle, L Ngidi, WD Parnell, D Paterson, AM Phangiso, AL Phehlukwayo, JT Smuts

Sri Lanka Squad
AD Mathews*, LD Chandimal†, DM de Silva, ST de Silva, N Dickwella, N Pradeep, DAS Gunaratne, MD Gunathilaka, KMDN Kulasekara, RAS Lakmal, BKG Mendis, SS Pathirana, S Prasanna, PADLR Sandakan, I Udana

Proteas boosted by de Villiers’ return for series-decider

The Standard Bank Proteas have been boosted by the return of AB de Villiers for the third series-deciding KFC T20 International against Sri Lanka at PPC Newlands on Wednesday. De Villiers last played for the Proteas in the triangular series in the West Indies in June and returns for his first competitive match after making a full recovery following elbow surgery in August.

Captain, Farahaan Behardien, says De Villiers’ experience and skill will be invaluable for the crucial must-win match. He also hinted at the possibility of giving opportunities to Reeza Hendricks and Dane Paterson, the only players in the squad who have yet to feature in the series.

“I think AB comes into the selection for tomorrow, we just have to have a look at that pitch again for tomorrow, we are going to finalise the team a bit later,” he said in Cape Town on Tuesday.

“He (De Villiers) is one of the best,” he added. “He is one of the best T20 players in the world, best batters in the world, not just for T20, but ODI’s and Tests. He has been out for such a long time, he came back in his warm-up game with 130 not out, he is quite keen to be back and he is quite hungry for cricket after about six months off, it is unbelievable to have him back.”

The series is at a dead-lock at 1-1, and is poised for a thrilling finish at a sold-out PPC Newlands stadium. Behardien says the squad is not under any extra pressure with the match being a ‘final’, but expressed confidence in his squad to perform under the pressures of the occasion.

“It is always a special place to play cricket here at Newlands,” he said. “The crowd is amazing and it generally produces some good cricket, the last couple of summers we’ve had very awesome games here. The guys enjoy Cape Town, people are friendly, there’s good food here in Cape Town, mom’s food, it’s a special place in my heart definitely.”

 

[MenInG]

ABdV returns! Lets see if he can blast his way today and show he is still around.

 

[Abdullah719]

South Africa win the toss, bat first. AB returns.

 

[Protea Fan]

50 for AB

Welcome back to international cricket

 

[Pollack]

AB back to bashing minnows.Not that he cannot the best.

 

[Pollack]

Behardin captain.you kidding me?

 

[marlonbrowndo]

Damn. Is this the same 2009 Udana?

 

[Thivagar]

Has to be worst SL team of all time. Afghanistan for sure will beat this team in an ODI/T20 series. Never seen bunch of disinterested and dumb looking players.

 

[Chief Destroyer]

Has to be worst SL team of all time. Afghanistan for sure will beat this team in an ODI/T20 series. Never seen bunch of disinterested and dumb looking players.

Hope they end up winning.

 

[Greenstorm]

is it Upal Tharanga opening for Srilanka ? He wasn't a regular member of ODI squad back in the days and now he is playing T20s.

 

[Pollack]

Has to be worst SL team of all time. Afghanistan for sure will beat this team in an ODI/T20 series. Never seen bunch of disinterested and dumb looking players.

SA cannot be any more disinterested if Behardein is made captain.

 

[vandokkum]

SA cannot be any more disinterested if Behardein is made captain.

It's a big joke really, Behardien is a nothing cricketer

 

[Thivagar]

HAT TRICK dropped catches. SA and SL competing to see who can be the worst fielding team today.

 

[Saffer_XIII]

Lol Parnell is so unlucky. Three drops in a row.

 

[hadi123]

Dickwella is playing an incredible innings. I really hope he pulls it for them

 

[Ab Fan]

How come SA have changed t20 side completely in this series?

De Kock, Faf and Duminy were obvious choices but none are playing. Are they rested?

 

[Ab Fan]

Dickwella making Saffers pay for three consecutive drop catches.

 

[vandokkum]

Imran Tahir has been the best Odi and t20 spinner in the world for a long time.. real game changer.

 

[vandokkum]

How come SA have changed t20 side completely in this series?

De Kock, Faf and Duminy were obvious choices but none are playing. Are they rested?

The guys have played a lot of tests in the past few months, why waste them on a meaningless series.

 

[soso_killer]

LOL forgot there was a game today. Potential match winning over by Tahir.

 

[soso_killer]

Parnell is rubbish

 

[soso_killer]

Where's Ngidi?

 

[Saffer_XIII]

Where's Ngidi?

Hurt his hip while fielding

 

[vandokkum]

Parnell is rubbish

I really hope he is not selected for the England tests, he will never be a world class player.

 

[soso_killer]

Hurt his hip while fielding

Does that mean his out of the ODI series?

 

[soso_killer]

LOL still one more run needed to win

 

[Pakpak]

Gunaratne thought theyd won

 

[Ab Fan]

SL won finally.. kudos to them for ending it on high note before losing all the t20s.

 

[Ab Fan]

The guys have played a lot of tests in the past few months, why waste them on a meaningless series.

Yeah understandable to rest them.

 

[Syed1]

Wow what a win. SA revert to type and choke in a high pressure game when they had all but won it

 

[soso_killer]

I really hope he is not selected for the England tests, he will never be a world class player.

LOL cost his team a win from a winning position.
Bowling rubbish and conceding 19 runs is unforgivable.
What happened to to the art of death bowling? He crumbled under the pressure. Don't international players want to play under pressure?
It's one thing to get outwitted, but to disintegrate like that is embarrassing really. Worst bowling I've seen.

Congrats to Lanka though

 

[aloo paratha]

What a match!

 

[vandokkum]

LOL cost his team a win from a winning position.
Bowling rubbish and conceding 19 runs is unforgivable.
What happened to to the art of death bowling? He crumbled under the pressure. Don't international players want to play under pressure?
It's one thing to get outwitted, but to disintegrate like that is embarrassing really. Worst bowling I've seen.

Congrats to Lanka though

It's not like this is a one off situation either, some players just aren't suited to play at the highest level. Parnell should stick to domestic cricket

 

[Syed1]

It's not like this is a one off situation either, some players just aren't suited to play at the highest level. Parnell should stick to domestic cricket

I may have missed something (the last five overs of this match were the first ones I saw in the series) but why in the world would SA not play Rabada and QdK?

 

[soso_killer]

I may have missed something (the last five overs of this match were the first ones I saw in the series) but why in the world would SA not play Rabada and QdK?

SA has the ODI series coming up, a tour to New Zealand and England. In between those tours there's the IPL which can't be avoided and has injured a lot of our players in the past.
A Champions Trophy, i think a tour to Bangladesh if I'm not mistaken after also.
Then India will be here for a 4 match Test series, if not it will be 3 Tests and 7 ODI's which is a lot. Then Australia.

That's a lot of matches which will involve Rabada, QdK and Faf since they play in all formats. It was prudent to rest them where we could.
It doesn't help that Steyn is always injured (and only plays Tests). Then there's AB picking and choosing matches which doesn't allow us to rotate that trio.
Of course with Rilley and Abbott having retired also compounds and stretches our depth and resources.

This T20 is inconsequential in the grand scheme of things.

 

[Abdullah719]

SRI LANKA SCORE HISTORIC SERIES WIN

Wednesday, 25 January 2017

SRI LANKA created their own piece of history when they beat the Standard Bank Proteas by 5 wickets with a ball to spare in the final KFC T20 International at PPC Newlands on Wednesday night. It gave them a 2-1 victory in the series, the first time they have won a series in any format in South Africa.

The heroes of their success were Niroshan Dickwella (68 off 51 balls, 10 fours and a six), who shared a third-wicket partnership of 71 with Dhananjaya de Silva and Seekkuge Prasanna who scored a career-best 37 not out off just 16 balls with 3 fours and 3 sixes to finish the job.

To a slightly lesser extent the experienced Nuwan Kulasekara contributed significantly to the success by taking 1/11 in his last two overs, including the key one of AB de Villiers, that prevented the Proteas from exploiting the last six overs of their innings to the extent that they should have done.

They only scored 39 runs in five overs and it was only some strong hitting by Mangaliso Mosehle in the final over that added 21 runs to the total including 3 sixes in 4 balls that gave the Proteas something reasonable to defend.

De Villiers was the main contributor to the South African total (63 off 44 balls, 2 fours and 3 sixes, the second of which was his 50th in T20 International cricket) and his second-wicket partnership of 71 with Reeza Hendricks set the Proteas up to construct a far more challenging total.

The Proteas were unlucky to lose Lungi Ngidi after he had bowled only 2 of his 4 overs with a hip injury after he fell heavily on one of the side pitches but in the end they had only themselves to blame for their defeat.

The key moment came in Wayne Parnell’s 2nd over when the Proteas dropped a hat trick of catches off the 4th, 5th and 6th balls of the over. De Silva was dropped on 3 and then Dickwella on 19 and again on 23.

In the end those chances made all the difference.

Dickwella finished the series as the only batsman on either side to score more than 100 runs in the series and he was deservedly named both KFC Man of the Match and KFC Man of the Series.

 

[vandokkum]

I may have missed something (the last five overs of this match were the first ones I saw in the series) but why in the world would SA not play Rabada and QdK?

Rabada and De kock have played all formats for the past year, they needed to rest. Big test season coming up soon

 

[soso_killer]

It's not like this is a one off situation either, some players just aren't suited to play at the highest level. Parnell should stick to domestic cricket

I didn't expect a lot from this third string side. But Ngidi is the one positive. I'd be disappointed if his injury is serious.
I want him in the ODI side, which will enable us to rest Rabada a bit more.

Our batting does concern me though, where is Amla/AB long term replacement?

 

[vandokkum]

I didn't expect a lot from this third string side. But Ngidi is the one positive. I'd be disappointed if his injury is serious.
I want him in the ODI side, which will enable us to rest Rabada a bit more.

Our batting does concern me though, where is Amla/AB long term replacement?

Can't help but feel let down by De Villiers, he has just put immense pressure on Amla and De Kock to carry the batting in England.

 

[soso_killer]

Can't help but feel let down by De Villiers, he has just put immense pressure on Amla and De Kock to carry the batting in England.

I lost respect for AB a long time ago

 

[vandokkum]

I lost respect for AB a long time ago

Yup, shows how great Graeme Smith really was.

 

[Cricfan4eva]

Yup, shows how great Graeme Smith really was.

Who also quit at his prime aged 32 for big bucks in England?

 

[vandokkum]

Who also quit at his prime aged 32 for big bucks in England?

The man averaged close to 50 as an opener while captaining all his career for over 100 tests, for me he is a far braver man than De Villiers. He might not meet your high standards for a great player, that's fine as well.

 

[CricFan2012]

Meaningless series win, saffers were playing a C grade team with Behardein as captain. kudos anyways

 

[Snatch]

Meaningless series win, saffers were playing a C grade team with Behardein as captain. kudos anyways

The photo of the Sri Lankan team celebrating looked like they'd just won the world cup or something. I agree with you, it was meaningless series against a B, possibly C side.

 

[Thivagar]

The photo of the Sri Lankan team celebrating looked like they'd just won the world cup or something. I agree with you, it was meaningless series against a B, possibly C side.

Because the match was a thriller. SL needed 26 something runs in the last 2 overs and even a six was beautifully stopped by Smut.

 

[Thivagar]

Meaningless series win, saffers were playing a C grade team with Behardein as captain. kudos anyways

The SL team was equally trash, check out the the team that played today. Only Chandimal and Kulasekara had played more than 10 T20 matches for SL

 

[Thivagar]

 

[Syed1]

A victory is a victory and to win by defying all odds is always special. At one point the required rate was 12 RPO. Is it Lanka's fault that SA played their C team?

 

[JaDed]

Congrats to Lanka ,they have a T20 series win in Aus and SA now,good record to have imo.

 

[Cricfan4eva]

The man averaged close to 50 as an opener while captaining all his career for over 100 tests, for me he is a far braver man than De Villiers. He might not meet your high standards for a great player, that's fine as well.

Never questioned Smith's ability as a player or his commitment to SA when he was playing.

I am saying that if you can hold it against ABD for picking and choosing series to keep himself fit for leagues all around the world and try and stay on till 2019 world cup. Why let Smith off the hook, he also left SA for a lucrative deal in England.

 

[vandokkum]

Never questioned Smith's ability as a player or his commitment to SA when he was playing.

I am saying that if you can hold it against ABD for picking and choosing series to keep himself fit for leagues all around the world and try and stay on till 2019 world cup. Why let Smith off the hook, he also left SA for a lucrative deal in England.

Smith carried the burden of South African cricket on his shoulders for 11 long years in both tests and odis. De Villiers hasn't shown anywhere near the same commitment. Will take a long time to explain.

 

[Cricfan4eva]

Smith carried the burden of South African cricket on his shoulders for 11 long years in both tests and odis. De Villiers hasn't shown anywhere near the same commitment. Will take a long time to explain.

I get what you mean, after 2003 debacle to take SA cricket where he did is commendable and frankly he could go down as one of the best captains alongside Clive Lloyd but if you use that in comparison to any player, even Amla. Then he wont really stand tall as well.

All I am asking is, why are you holding it against ABD that he wants to pick and choose series, to extend his career till 2019 WC, is it because he's choosing to play leagues?

You should know 14-18 T20 games a year is nothing in comparison to a full fledged test series vs England or NZ.

 

[vandokkum]

I get what you mean, after 2003 debacle to take SA cricket where he did is commendable and frankly he could go down as one of the best captains alongside Clive Lloyd but if you use that in comparison to any player, even Amla. Then he wont really stand tall as well.

All I am asking is, why are you holding it against ABD that he wants to pick and choose series, to extend his career till 2019 WC, is it because he's choosing to play leagues?

You should know 14-18 T20 games a year is nothing in comparison to a full fledged test series vs England or NZ.

Over the past few years, De Villiers has shown time and again he isn't committed fully to South African cricket, test cricket in particular. Not really about his recent decision.