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| Monday, 23 August 2004 |
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Zoysa's wedding gift leaves Proteas trailing 0-2 by Sa'adi Thawfeeq Lanky left-arm fast bowler Nuwan Zoysa brought himself a wedding gift on the eve of his wedding by turning on a career best bowling performance to give Sri Lanka an emphatic 37-run win over South Africa in the second one-day international played at the R. Premadasa Stadium yesterday. Zoysa's five wickets for 26 runs off eight overs overshadowed the gutsy batting display of Upul Chandana who top scored with an unbeaten half-century.
Zoysa who will tie the nuptial knot to Sawasdee de Silva at St. Theresa's Church, Thimbirigasyaya today played havoc with the South African batting taking five wickets in his opening spell to enable Sri Lanka successfully defend their moderate total of 213-9. South Africa left with no chance of matching Sri Lanka's total after Zoysa's early burst had left them hopelessly stranded at 50-6, were eventually dismissed for 176 in 48.5 overs. It was their second successive defeat in as many games and left them trailing Sri Lanka 0-2 in the five-match series. Gibbs began the South African collapse when he played a rash pull across the line and was bowled by Zoysa for seven in the sixth over and then Boje sent in as pinch hitter lasted 18 balls for 14 runs before Dilshan sent him on his way with a good catch at point. Smith played on to an inswinger from Zoysa to be bowled for 14 and worse followed when Zoysa trapped Kallis lbw for a duck and had Rudolph caught behind for four. Zoysa's previous best effort in the abbreviated game was four for 28 against New Zealand at Wellington in 2000-01. "I did not think about my wedding. I just wanted to play good cricket and win the match,' said the 26-year-old Zoysa after bagging his third man-of-the-match award in his last six one-day internationals.
"Definitely it was a hard wicket to bowl on. I needed to do a lot of variations and everything I tried worked to perfection. I had good support from the field. Everything seems to be going well at the moment. I hope I can continue the same form in the future," he said. Skipper Marvan Atapattu praised Zoysa's bowling but said the win was achieved by team effort and not by the performances of any individuals. "On a wicket like this Zoysa bowled superbly. There was something extra special in his bowling. I would be hesitant to single out anybody individually. It was a team effort," said Atapattu. Zoysa was playing his 80th one-day international and his five wickets brought him closer to 100 wickets in his career. After Zoysa had creamed the top half of the South African batting, the part-time off-breaks of Dilshan undid the rest with Lokuarachchi chipping in with the wicket of top scorer Shaun Pollock who was out for a well-compiled 54 off 78 balls (2 fours). In the first game it was Dilshan's batting that enabled Sri Lanka to squeeze past South Africa's challenging total of 263. Yesterday Dilshan played the role of a bowler to bag a career best four for 52 off 9.5 overs. He more than doubled the number of wickets he had taken in his entire 41-match career prior to yesterday's performance. Sri Lanka showed that they were very good at closing up a game well and they did it with a great degree of success yesterday. Record partnership Chandana shared a record sixth wicket partnership of 93 off 117 balls with Kumar Sangakkara who also made a fifty to enable Sri Lanka total 213 for 9. The leg-spinning all-rounder was the victim of an assault by some Army officers at Mirihana on Saturday, which left him with a bruised left jaw. But yesterday he overcame the injury and a dull headache as a result of the blow to steer Sri Lanka to a respectable total after half the side had collapsed for 86 by the 25th over. Chandana was top scorer with 61 not out off 91 balls (2 fours) and during his 112 minutes at the wicket he suffered from dizziness and also vomited on the field probably from the ill-effects of the blow. Sri Lanka chose to bat first after winning the toss on a bone-dry pitch, which later became difficult for stroke play. Sri Lanka went into this match with an additional spinner (Rangana Herath) at the expense of fast-bowling all-rounder Farveez Maharoof, expecting the pitch to assist the slow bowlers later during the day. The Sri Lankan innings was thrown into disarray by some disciplined bowling and sharp fielding by the South Africans. By capturing the early wickets South Africa put a stranglehold on the Sri Lankan run rate. From five an over in the first 10 overs it dropped to below four by the 20th with only four runs coming in five overs between the 15th and 20th overs when they lost the wickets of Marvan Atapattu and Mahela Jayawardene. Boundaries became scarce with none being scored for 20 overs. After Sangakkara took a boundary in the 14th over off Ntini, it was not until the 34th over that another boundary was hit by the same combination. Such was the control South Africa had over the free-scoring Lankan batsmen. The middle overs proved to be a quiet period as Sri Lanka rebuilt their innings around the sixth wicket pair of Sangakkara and Chandana. They gradually worked the singles and twos, as boundaries weren't easy to come by and built a healthy partnership that gave the batting some leeway. They erased the previous highest stand of 65 by Mahela Jayawardene and Russel Arnold at the Wanderers in 2002-03. Sangakkara's defiant innings was ended in a disastrous manner when he backed up too far at the non-striker's end and was run out for 63. He faced 83 balls and hit three fours in compiling his 15th one-day fifty and his fifth against South Africa. Apart from Sangakkara and Chandana, only Gunawardene (21) and Atapattu (26) reached double figures in what was a characterless display of batting by the Sri Lankan top order. Kallis with his medium-pace turned out to be pick of the bowlers with three for 20, but Pollock bowled beautifully to finish with one for 35 off 10 overs. SRI LANKA INNINGS A. Gunawardene c Boucher b Ntini 21 S. Jayasuriya b Pollock 9 M. Atapattu c Bouncher b Ntini 26 K. Sangakkara run out 63 M. Jayawardene c Boucher b Klusener 0 T. Dilshan c Pollock b Kallis 5 U. Chandana not out 61 C. Vaas run out 7 K. Lokuarachchi lbw Kallis 3 N. Zoysa b Kallis 6 Extras (6LB, 4NB, 2W) 12 TOTAL (for nine wickets, 50 overs) 213 FALL OF WICKETS: 1-18, 2-45, 3-69, 4-72, 5-86, 6-179, 7-188, 8-198, 9-213. DID NOT BAT: R. Herath. BOWLING: S. Pollock 10-1-35-1 (nb-2), A. Dawson 8-0-46-0 (w-1), M. Ntini 10-1-50-2 (w-1), L. Klusener 8-0-26-1 (nb-1), N. Boje 8-0-30-0, J. Kallis 6-1-20-3 (nb-1). SOUTH AFRICA G. Smith b Zoysa 14 H. Gibbs b Zoysa 7 N. Boje c Dilshan b Zoysa 14 J. Kallis lbw b Zoysa 0 J. Rudolph c Sangakkara b Zoysa 4 S. Pollock c Atapattu b Dilshan 54 M. Boucher c Jayawardene b Lokuarachchi 4 P. Duminy lbw b Dilshan 22 L. Klusener c Jayasuriya b Dilshan 40 A. Dawson c Vaas b Dilshan 15 M. Ntini not out 0 Extras (W-2) 2 TOTAL (all out, 48.5 overs) 176 FALL OF WICKETS: 1-15, 2-35, 3-36, 4-37, 5-40, 6-50, 7-94, 8-145, 9-176. BOWLING: C. Vaas 8-0-19-0 (w-1), N. Zoysa 8-0-26-5 (w-1), K. Lokuarachchi 7-0-17-1, S. Jayasuriya 5-0-22-0, U. Chandana 3-0-11-0, R. Herath 8-0-29-0, T. Dilshan 9.5-0-52-4. Result: Sri Lanka win by 37 runs.03 220804 GMT |
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