South Africa again crumble to spin, Sri Lanka clinch low-scoring thriller

Sri Lanka shot out South Africa for 98 – their lowest ever in T20s – and chased it down with three wickets in hand in a low scoring thriller to win the one-off T20I at Colombo.

Sri Lanka shot out South Africa for 98 – their lowest ever in T20s – and chased it down with three wickets in hand in a low-scoring thriller to win the one-off T20I at Colombo.

Sri Lanka had their fair share of troubles against spin but not as much as they made the visitors go through. At the end of the tour, South Africa were back to square one – appearing clueless in front of Sri Lanka’s spinners.

After getting off to a decent enough start considering the slow nature of the pitch, South Africa lost their way in the middle, when the Sri Lankan spin trio of Akela Dananjaya, Lakshan Sandakan and Dhanajaya de Silva took over.    

De Kock started the innings by hitting three boundaries off the first four balls of the South African innings, showing ominous signs but got run out in the fourth over of the match for 20. Dhananjaya had already accounted for Hashim Amla for a duck and the visitors were 30 for 2 in four overs, in desperate need of a partnership.

That, however, never came as de Silva and Dananjaya struck in quick succession removing Reeza Hendricks (19) and captain JP Duminy (3). South Africa lost their way completely in the 11^th over, when chinaman Sandakan picked up three wickets – Klaasen, Phehlukwayo and Rabada – in one over.

Handling the spin-barrage was a bit too much to handle for the tail and South Africa folded for 98 in 16.4 overs.

The spinners shared 8 wickets between them with Sandakan emerging as most impressive one. The chinaman returned with figures of 3 for 19 while de Silva and Dananjaya picked up two wickets apiece.

In reply, Sri Lanka lost their openers to Kagiso Rabada with only 6 runs on board but Dinesh Chandimal and de Silva put together a 53-run stand for the third wicket to bail the hosts out of trouble.

The South Africa spinners led by Tabraiz Shamsi (2/26), fought hard and picked up three wickets for six runs reducing Sri Lanka to 88 for 7 from 82 for 3. However, Chandimal held his nerve and took Sri Lanka over the line with no. 9 Isuru Udana for company.

Chandimal remained unbeaten on 35.