A Thriller of a Game

Well! The Srilanka Vs South Africa match on March 28th, finally provided exactly what the fans required: A game that went down right to the wire.

Srilanka batted first and they lost early wickets: Upul Tharanga to Ntini and Jayasuriya to Langeveldt.
South Africa bowled tightly seldom allowing the batsman to score runs freely and taking wickets at regular intervals. Srilankans had to contend with just singles and twos. Every run seemed to be important as they needed to set a challenging total of at least 220 on the board. Langeveldt was the star of the show, he bowled a good line and length, bowled slower balls, and also fired in the odd one when needed.

South Africa's tight bowling and great fielding frustrated the Srilankans especially Chamara Silva (Their star of the show against India). Chamara hung in for 27 balls to score just 9 runs. He was runout by a superb effort from Gibbs. Gibbs dived full length to the stumps. With his body in the air, he broke the stumps with the ball still in this hands.
This was an exact replica of the 1992 SA vs PAK match, where Jonty Rhodes (Who else can do it?)ran out Inzamam by diving full length to the stumps and dislodging the stumps with the ball still in his hands. It reminded me of Superman!!!
It was a classic example of the greatness of the South African fielding. Jonty! You have done a great job as the fielding coach!!!!! Gibbs! Hats Off Dude!

Dilshan(58) and Arnold(50) batted sensibly, scoring singles, running the two's etc. But neither of them could put up a big score. After Dilshan got out with the score reading 195/6, South Africans cleaned up the tail courtesy Langeveldt. He first got rid of Arnold (caught behind), then he bowled some very slow good-length deliveries to Maharoof and Vaas, who mishit the balls and got caught in the deep. Pollock then inflicted a direct hit to run out Muralitharan. Srilankans thus collapsed and scored 209 instead of 230. It was a result of some sensible and accurate bowling from South Africa and also their fielding which remained Top-class.



The South African Chase: 210 was always going to be a tricky target on a slow West Indian pitch. South Africa began disastrously as Vaas removed De Villers for nought.But Smith and the ever-reliable Kallis prevented further damage and built a solid 93 run partnership. Smith was his usual aggressive self and scored a valuable 59(65 balls).
Gibbs came in after Smith's dismissal and he scored a patient 31.

The Beginning of the Great Collapse: South Africa were cruising till the 32nd over. When Murali came into bowl the 33rd over, the score read 160/2. Kallis and Gibbs were batting well and they had built on a sensible 65 run stand. Murali started the collapse when he caught Gibbs off his own bowling and got rid of Boucher the very next ball. Kemp was the next to go, he scored just 5 before getting stumped off a Jayasuriya delivery.
With the score reading a precarious 182/5, Pollock joined Kallis and built a nervous 24 run partnership till Malinga struck

Malinga strikes: It was the 45th Over. With the score reading 206/5 off 44.4 overs, many would have thought that South Africa could easily win this match. But Malinga thought otherwise. He bowled four great balls: The first one: A slow yorker that uprooted Pollock's leg stump, Second one: another slow yorker to Andrew Hall who dug the yorker out, but it took the outside edge and was caught. The Third one was a good length delivery on the off stump that got rid of Kallis and fetched him a Hat-Trick, the fourth one, a beauty of a yorker to send Ntini's stump flying. Malinga had now taken 4 wickets in 4 balls including a Hat-Trick. South Africa were 207/9 and Srilanka were smelling an unlikely victory.
However Peterson and Langeveldt guided South Africa to a thrilling victory and thus the Match ended in South Africa's favor.

Highlights: Herschelle Gibb's diving full length to the stumps to run-out Chamara Silva. It was a treat to watch.
Malinga's Hat-trick: The fifth in World Cup history, only Chetan Sharma(India), Brett Lee(Australia), Saqlain Mushtaq (Pakistan), Chaminda Vaas(SrilLanka), have achieved this feat. However Malinga's hat-trick also made him the first bowler to take 4 wickets in 4 balls and also end up in the losing side.

Kallis proved to be the Pillar around which the SouthAfrican batting relied. Inspite of the regular flow of wickets at the other end, he kept a cool head and scored 86(just 4 fours in it), until he became the Hat-Trick victim after nicking a Malinga special to Sangakkara.

Man-of-the-Match Charles Langeveldt 5 wicket haul that restricted SriLanka to 209.