South Africa’s cricket team members celebrate winning their first Twenty20 match against Sri Lanka in Colombo yesterday. South Africa won by 12 runs.
COLOMBO: JP Duminy starred with bat and ball as South Africa overcame Sri Lanka in an exciting 12-run victory in the first Twenty20 international in Colombo yesterday.
The tourists, restricted to a modest 115-6 after electing to bat, bounced back to stop Sri Lanka at 103-9 in front of a packed house of 30,000 at the Premadasa stadium.
Duminy top-scored with 51 off 52 balls to help the tourists recover from a poor start and then grabbed three wickets for 18 runs, earning himself the man of the match award.
It was a morale-boosting win for South Africa over the world’s top-ranked Twenty20 side following an embarrassing 4-1 defeat in the last one-day series.
Kumar Sangakkara put up a fight for the hosts with an unbeaten 59 off 53 balls, but young opener Kusal Perera (11) was the only other batsman to reach double figures.
With 21 runs needed off the last two overs and three wickets in hand, left-arm seamer Wayne Parnell swung the game South Africa’s way by removing Sachithra Senanayake and Lasith Malinga without conceding a run in the penultimate over.
Sangakkara hit two boundaries in Morne Morkel’s final over, but it was not enough to carry his team to victory.
South Africa’s Twenty20 captain Faf du Plessis was delighted by his team’s win.
“I am very chuffed and so proud of the boys,” he said. “We were under pressure after the one-day series, but the team showed great character tonight.
“The wicket was not easy to bat on, so I thought ours could be a good total. I told the boys that if we kept fighting, we could pull it off.” RUETERS
