Sri Lanka will look to put in a better performance when they face South Africa at the Super Sport Park, Centurion on the 6th of March, after being comprehensively beaten in the 1st ODI between the sides last Sunday (3rd).
Sri Lanka were on a high coming into the ODI series, after a historic win, but were brought down to earth pretty fast as South Africa dominated the game at The Wanderers, winning with a comfortable margin of 8 wickets.
A complete overhaul of the squad was what had worked for Sri Lanka in the Tests and it looked like Sri Lanka would follow the same path in the ODIs when a few fresh faces were named in the ODI squad. However, the selectors seemed somewhat reluctant to commit completely to playing a new-look side, opting for Upul Tharanga at the top of the order, instead of Avishka Fernando, a man who is in red-hot form. Sri Lanka’s openers failed but Oshada Fernando impressed one and all on debut, batting at number 4, missing out on a half-century by the smallest margins – run out for 49.
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Kusal Perera, Dhananjaya De Silva and Kusal Mendis all contributed with the bat, but would be disappointed that none of them were able to push on to a big score. Sri Lanka were cruising at a run-rate above 5 but kept losing wickets, soon falling to 210/6 before the 40th over. From that point on, it was a matter of batting out the 50 overs and all expectations of getting to a competitive total were lost – Sri Lanka eventually crumbled to 231 in 47 overs.
Sri Lanka’s weakness against wrist spin continued and so Imran Tahir’s domination of the Lankans, as the leggie ran through Sri Lanka’s middle order to capture 3/26 in his 10 overs. Tahir has accounted for 27 Sri Lankan batsmen in 11 matches against the side at an average of 15 – an enviable record but not too dissimilar to what many wrist spinners have enjoyed against Sri Lanka of late.
In the bowling department, there wasn’t much to write home about with the pacies and spinners alike struggling to pick up wickets. As they had done in the Test series, the visitors’ bowlers struggled against Quinton de Kock as the South African wicket-keeper batsman kept finding the boundaries regularly.
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Every one of the bowlers used by skipper Lasith Malinga went for runs and things weren’t helped by the disappointing fielding which saw a couple of catches go down.
Lakshan Sandakan, playing his 1st game on tour, and 1st international in a while, drew the ire of fans when he spilled a sitter at short-third-man, a catch which would have sent South African skipper Faf du Plessis back to the pavilion – he went on to make a hundred.
All in all, Sri Lanka were sloppy and will need to pull up their socks in all departments if they are to challenge South Africa at Supersport Park, one of the quicker pitches in the country.
It will be interesting to see if Sri Lanka look to make any changes to the line-up, if they do, Avishka Fernando and Kamindu Mendis are the likeliest to come into the team, replacing Upul Tharanga and Lakshan Sandakan – they could also consider playing the extra seamer, considering the conditions at the Centurion.
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Sri Lanka Probable XI: Niroshan Dickwella (wk), Upul Tharanga, Kusal Perera, Oshada Fernando, Kusal Mendis, Dhananjaya De Silva, Thisara Perera, Akila Dananjaya, Lasith Malinga ©, Kasun Rajitha, Vishwa Fernando
South Africa were out to get Sri Lanka in the ODIs and they did so in some style in the 1st ODI. The bowling looked back to its threatening best, while de Kock and du Plessis ensured that all the other batter had little to nothing to do as they cruised to the target with close to 12 overs remaining.
If anything, the hosts will need to brush up of their early overs, as the Lankan batsmen looked quite comfortable against the likes of Kagiso Rabada, Dwaine Pretorius, Wiaan Mulder and to some extent Lungi Ngidi.
The hosts are unlikely to make any changes to their XI after the comfortable win and will be hoping that the pitch is at its fiery best, come Wednesday.
South Africa Probable XI: Quinton de Kock (wk), Reeza Hendricks, Faf du Plessis ©, Russie van der Dussen, David Miller, Wiaan Mulder, Dwaine Pretorious, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje, Imran Tahir, Lungi Ngidi
South Africa showed that the momentum and form gained in the Tests meant nothing when it came to white ball cricket in the 1st ODI and will be looking to take another step towards securing the series and redeeming themselves somewhat. Sri Lanka on the other hand will be desperate to improve and regain the momentum that won them the Test series a couple of weeks ago.
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