Mathews is the main man
Proteas would not been happy with dry pitch which did not assist strokeplay
IT MUST have almost felt like a home game for Sri Lanka when they arrived at the Wanderers yesterday.
When it comes to T20 cricket, the ‘Bullring’ is known for producing pitches that are conducive to high-scoring matches.
Instead the tourists would have been thrilled to find a dry track that was cracking up - almost as if it was flown in from Colombo.
Where Faf Du Plessis got what he wanted with regards to the pitches for the Tests against Sri Lanka – extra grass to aid seam bowling and nullify the threat of Rangana Herath – Farhaan Behardien must have been tearing his hair out.
For the purposes of 20-over cricket, Having appeared to twist his ankle, SrI Lankan skipper Angelo Mathews knew the only way his side would pick up a first victory on what has been a difficult tour was to smite the ball a long way away. Offered a ‘life’ when Heino Kuhn dropped a difficult catch coming in off the midwicket boundary, he smashed the first of two straight sixes off the second ball of JJ Smuts’ final over. He forgoed a single off the next delivery and then repeated the straight hit to give his side the first win on their tour of this country. the pitch never assisted good strokeplay. It certainly didn’t make for a run-fest and there were a number of occasions when the sold out crowd could be heard voicing their displeasure about the lack of entertainment – ie. boundaries.
“It was little bit disappointing coming to the Bullring and getting a slow turner,” Behardien said afterwards.
“Normally, you expect pace and bounce, lots of runs, fours and sixes ... not so today.”
The match would finish in dramatic circumstances, with an injured Angelo Mathews smashing a pair of straight sixes to get his side across the line and earn their first win on what has been a wretched tour thusfar.
It was a scrappy game, not helped by the batsmen on both sides – bar Mathews and to a lesser extent Dinesh Chandimal – failing to adjust to the nature of the pitch.
South Africa’s answer to the spinning challenge was frenzied and occasionally brainless.
It wasn’t just the shot selection that was poor but from the get go the South Africans lacked patience, and, as the innings unfolded, the nous to deal with what Sri Lanka’s bowlers served up.
Heino Kuhn and Theunis de Bruyn got into an awful mix up at the start of the third over not knowing whether to attempt a quick single and the former should have been run out. Instead of someone taking a deep breath for the home team, they just continued taking tight singles and play rash shots.
“We thought we’d assessed the pitch, but the nature of it brought the Sri Lankan spinners into the game, notably their left-arm chinaman (Lakshan Sandakhan), who was a star of the them today and picked up wickets on a regular basis,” Behardien remarked.
Kuhn top scored with 29, but if South Africa were going to get a proper score on that surface he needed to be batting well into the second half of the innings. He was out in the ninth over, the second of debutant Sandakhan’s four wickets.
The left-arm wrist spinner was very impressive finishing with 4/23 in four overs, bamboozling the South Africans who, failing to read him, then tried to hit him too hard.
The Proteas deserve some credit for the spirit they should in defending a total that they knew was far from adequate. Led by an energetic perform ance from Lungi Ngidi, who backed up his debut performance with a stunningly mature display yesterday, they made a Sri Lankan side lacking confidence, work very hard for their victory.
The 20 year old extracted pace and bounce off the surface, causing discomfort for the all the Sri Lankan batsmen, and eventually finished with 4/19 from four overs.
Where South Africa had earlier failed Sri Lanka succeeded in their innings, building a crucial partnership for the fourth wicket between their two most experienced players, Mathews and Chandimal of 51.
Three late wickets made for a tense finish which was further heightened when Mathews appeared to twist his left ankle diving for a quick single at the end of the penultimate over.
Jon-Jon Smuts was tasked with bowling the last over and nearly had Mathews caught at deep midwicket, but in diving forward to take the catch Kuhn missed a difficult chance. Mathews maintained his composure and smashed two sixes to win the game. He ended on 54 not out off 50 balls having hit a four and three sixes.