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| Saturday, 21 August 2004 |
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Lanka pull off exciting three-wicket win By Sa'adi Thawfeeq Kaushal Lokuarachchi, the bad boy of Sri Lanka cricket not so long ago provided a thrilling finish to the first one-day international against South Africa when he swung the last ball of the penultimate over from Shaun Pollock for six over mid wicket to give his country a three-wicket win at the R. Premadasa Stadium under lights yesterday. The game was heading for the wire with Sri Lanka barely keeping pace with the asking rate. They were chasing South Africa's total of 263-9 off 50 overs and at the start of the 49th over they required 13 for victory with three wickets intact. But Lokuarachchi and Tillakaratne Dilshan took 14 off Pollock's over to seal a superb victory for Sri Lanka with one over to spare. Sri Lanka finished on 265-7 off 49 overs. After Avishka Gunawardene (51 off 61 balls, 7 fours) and skipper Marvan Atapattu (64 off 82 balls, 5 fours) had done the hard work at the top, it was left to the versatile batting skills of Dilshan to steer his side to victory. A player to excel in these kind of situations Dilshan kept Sri Lanka in the run chase despite the fall of wickets to remain unbeaten on 38 scored off 36 balls with two fours. He came to the wicket at 170-4 in the 34th over and batted till the end. Yesterday Dilshan showed what a tremendous one-day player he is by not allowing the situation to get out of hand. He kept the opposition on their toes by converting singles into couples and even threes. So fast was he between the wickets that reaching a tall total as 263 was made to look easy. In fact it was the second highest successful run chase at this venue after India scored 271-2 in 35.3 overs to beat England by seven wickets in a Champions trophy match two years ago. South Africa who won the toss and batted first recovered from losing Herschelle Gibbs for a duck in the fifth to post a total of 263-9. At one time they looked like going past the 280 mark when Jacques Kallis was at the wicket. The strongly built right-hander slammed five fours and two sixes as he raced to 74 off 86 balls passing 7000 runs in one-day internationals in the process playing in his 197th match. Kallis' second wicket stand of 77 off 78 balls with his captain Graeme Smith (38) put South Africa back on course for a big total. As long as Kallis was at the wicket, a big score looked imminent. But Upul Chandana who had dropped Jacques Rudolph on three at mid-off brought Kallis' bright innings to an end by holding onto a hard return catch. The umpire unsure whether it was a bump catch, referred the decision to the third umpire. Kallis departed at 157 in the 33rd over, but Shaun Pollock promoted in the batting to no. 5 and Mark Boucher figured in a useful stand of 52 off 58 balls for the fifth wicket, which kept South Africa on course. Pollock made 30 off 45 balls and Boucher completed his 15th one-day fifty before becoming one of Chaminda Vaas' three victims in a second spell of two overs. Boucher made 58 off 47 balls with one six and five fours before holing out to Gunawardene at long on. Vaas ensured South Africa did not race away to a total beyond the reach of the Sri Lankan batsmen by adding the wickets of the dangerous Lance Klusener (15) and debutant Jean-Paul Duminy (4) in his seventh over to finish with figures of four 33 when all the other bowlers with the exception of Lokuarachchi failed to impress. Leg-spinner Lokuarachchi on his return to the team after a five-month absence bowled nine overs for 40 runs and took the wicket of Smith. His inclusion in place of the injured Muttiah Muralitharan was the only change Sri Lanka made from the side that beat India in the Asia Cup final 19 days ago. Vaas took the man-of-the-match award for his splendid bowling coupled with his valuable contribution of 18 runs in a seventh wicket stand of 33 with Dilshan which brought Sri Lanka close to victory. Day cricket at RPS Day cricket returns to R. Premadasa Stadium after two years when Sri Lanka and South Africa play the second one-day international of the series tomorrow (Sunday). The last occasion a day match took place at this venue was when Sri Lanka beat Bangladesh by 58 runs in 2002. Since then 19 night matches have been played at this venue including yesterday's game. South Africa G. Smith b Lokuarachchi 38 H. Gibbs lbw b Vaas 00 J. Kallis c and b Chandana 74 J. Rudolph st Sangakkara b Chandana 22 S. Pollock b Jayasuriya 30 M. Boucher c Gunawardene b Vaas 58 L. Klusener b Vaas 15 J. Duminy lbw b Vaas 04 N. Boje run out 02 A. Dawson not out 03 M Ntini not out 05 Extras (lb7, w4, nb1) 12 Total (for nine wickets) 263 Fall of wickets: 1-13, 2-90, 3-138, 4-157, 5-209, 6-241, 7-249, 8-253, 9-257 Bowling: Vaas 7-1-33-4, Zoysa 4-0-20-0, Dilshan 9-0-57-0, Maharoof 2-0-12-0, Lokuarachchi 10-1-46-1, Jayasuriya 10-0-47-1, Chandana 8-0-41-2 Sri Lanka A. Gunawardene c Gibbs b Ntini 51 S. Jayasuriya b Dawson 12 M. Atapattu c Boucher b Ntini 64 K. Sangakkara c Gibbs b Boje 24 M. Jayawardene c Boucher b Klusener 19 T. Dilshan not out 38 U. Chandana run out 05 C. Vaas c Klusener b Pollock 18 K. Lokuarachchi not out 11 Extras (lb12, w7, nb4) 23 Total (for seven wickets) 265 Fall of wickets: 1-29, 2-95, 3-146, 4-170, 5-201, 6-211, 7-244 Bowling: Pollock 10-1-47-1, Dawson 8-0-42-1, Ntini 9-0-46-2, Klusener 10-0-52-1, Boje 5-0-31-1, Kallis 7-0-35-0 Man of the match: Chaminda Vaas (SRI) Toss: South Africa Umpires: Billy Bowden (NZL) and Gamini Silva (SRI) TV umpire: Ranmor Martinesz (SRI) Match-referee: Clive Lloyd (WIS) |
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