Kolkata: Opener Hashim Amla’s prolific ton and leg-spinner Imran Tahir’s four wicket haul summed up a good beginning for South Africa in the Champions Trophy as they went past Sri Lanka by 96 runs at the Kennington Oval in London on Saturday.
Batting first, Sri Lanka actually did well to restrict a batting heavy Proteas team to 299 runs in 50 overs despite a scintillating century by Hashim Amla, and a supportive 75 from Faf Du Plessis. JP Duminy (38), Quinton De Kock ( 23) and Chris Morris (20) played brief innings which helped them set a 300- run target. For the Lankans, Nuwan Pradeep was the most successful bowler with two wickets to his name from his quota of 10 overs.
Sri Lanka, in pursuit of 300 put on a spirited show through openers Upul Tharanga (57) and Niroshan Dickwella (41) who put on 69 runs in 8.2 overs. After Dickwella departed in the ninth over, Kusal Mendis stitched a brief 25 run stand with Tharanga after which Mendis fell for 11 and the Sri Lankan slide began. They continuously kept losing wickets at regular intervals and never did a single batsman look to take responsibility of guiding the team to a victory.
They surely missed the services of Angelo Matthews as Imran Tahir wreaked havoc with the ball, destroying the middle and lower order of the Sri Lankan batting with four scalps to his name. Chris Morris also took two wickets along with Morne Morkel (1/36) and Kagiso Rabada (1/46) to wrap up the Sri Lankan innings for 203, in 41.3 overs, registering a 96 run triumph against the island nation.
Brief scores:
South Africa 299/6 (Hashim Amla 103, Faf Du Plessis 75; Nuwan Pradeep 2/54) beat Sri Lanka (Upul Tharanga 57, Kusal Perera 44; Imran Tahir 4/27) by 96 runs