Sri Lanka put up yet another disappointing performance with the bat as they handed South Africa their first limited overs series win in Sri Lanka.
South Africa were much improved with the bat following their subpar performance in Colombo. Sri Lanka on the other hand displayed more of the same; Sangakkara playing a lone hand while wickets tumbled around him.
A heavy breeze across the ground made both batting and fielding quite difficult, but South Africa were able to put up a good total of 145. The Lankan spinners were handled more easily, with the South African batsman being prepared to use their feet against them, something they did not do in the first game. Once again JP Duminy and David Miller were the chief architects of the Proteas innings hitting a couple of fast thirties. For Sri Lanka, Ajantha Mendis had a disappointing outing, going for 39 runs without picking up a wicket.
Sri Lanka had gone into this match rotating out TM Dilshan for Mahela Jaywardene, while a fit Nuwan Kulasekara replaced Jeevan Mendis. While Kulasekara ended up with very economical bowling figures, Mahela was unable to fire with the bat, making only 6 runs. Dinesh Chandimal did no favours to his already miserable T20 statistics, edging a wide one behind after making 2 runs of 6 balls. He now averages below 14 with a strike rate below 100, and there will be more people wondering about his place in the T20 side let alone his suitability to captain the team.
Kusal Perera started off edgily but showed glimpses of why he is compared with Sri Lankan legend Sanath Jayasuriya. He was perhaps unfortunate to be dismissed on 21, given lbw to a delivery pitching outside leg stump, but he had no reason to be attempting a reverse sweep at that stage.
Lahiru Thirimanne is another who’s place in the side must come under scrutiny. Even in the 50 over format he has shown that he needs time to get going. That luxury cannot be afforded in the shortest form of the game. Once again he showed himself unsuitable for the task of coming in and accelerating the scoring rate, getting bowled after making 18 runs. There is no doubt that he is a talented batsman but he is yet to look at home in T20. The rest of the Sri Lankan middle order simply had too much to do in too little time, and weren’t capable of showing much fight.
Kumar Sangakkara was once again the lone sword of resistance, hitting a fighting innings of 39 off 35. He is probably in the form of his life at the moment, but he can’t win matches single handedly every day. His dismissal was the final straw and South Africa wrapped up the game clinically, restricting Sri Lanka to 123 for 7, winning the match, and with it the series.
The final game is now a dead rubber but the Sri Lankans will be playing for both pride, and for their number one ranking. Another loss would mean that they lose the top position to Pakistan, a title they have held since last October.
