SA’S TOUGH TASK
ODI records show that the series will be a tight affair and Proteas better be aware of Sri Lankan threat
SOUTH Africa began the deciding third Test at Newlands all square with Sri Lanka, and emerged victorious in a home Test series for the first time since 2008.
There is something of the same feel about the looming fivematch one-day international series which begins in Paarl on Wednesday – in 46 previous meetings over 50 overs, each side has won 22 times, one match has been tied and there has been one no-result.
That tied match, at the World Cup in Durban in 2003, is one local fans still don’t care to talk about too much, as rain and an incorrect reading of the Duckworth-lewis numbers meant the Proteas were ejected from the tournament in the group stages.
The last three meetings between the teams have been at major competitions rather than in series.
In the Champions trophy in 2009, played at Centurion, current Sri Lankan captain Tillakaratne Dilshan hit 106 off 92 balls out of a total of 319/8, which helped give the islanders victory by 55 runs, again on Duckworth-lewis calculations. On that occasion the winning team still had the services of master spinner Muttiah Muralitharan, and stalwart batsman Mahela Jayawardene, currently short of form, contributed a 61ball 77.
Also a member of
that team was middle-order batsman Thilan Samaraweera, whose omission from the squad for the coming series, even though he is 35, is a surprise in the light of his great form in the Test series.
In March 2007 South Africa had the better of Sri Lanka in a World Cup Super Eights clash in Providence, Guyana, but only just.
The Proteas squeezed in by one wicket after looking to be comfortable winners at one stage.
The man who nearly upset the apple cart was the slingy Lasith Malinga, who will play on Wednesday if he is fit.
Malinga had no wickets to his name but then took four in four balls at the death, before Robin Peterson edged a streaky four to third man to win the match. Almost forgotten in the hulla- baloo about Malinga is the fact that SA swing bowler Charl Langeveldt took 5/39 in the same match.
Both sides were to fall to Australia later in the tournament – South Africa in a semi-final as their “brave cricket” plan went awry, and Sri Lanka in the final.
Going back to October 2006, South Africa had an easy 78-run victory in the Champions Trophy in Ahmedabad, and you have to go back two more years to find the last time the two teams played each other in a head-to-head ODI series.
That was in Sri Lanka in 2004, when batsman JP Duminy made his way into the Proteas side as an off-spinner and lower-order batsman, in the period when the team was coached by Eric Simons.
Embarassingly for the South Africans, they lost that series 5-0. Two seasons earlier, a team lead by Shaun Pollock took a home ODI series against Sri Lanka 4-1, but a few months earlier, in August 2002, the teams contested the final of a triangular series in a most exotic location.
The third side in the equation was Pakistan, and the venue … Tangier in Morocco.
Sri Lanka were winners by 27 runs, thanks in large part to the 71 scored by whirlwind opener Sanath Jayasuriya against a Proteas line-up which included current bowling coach Allan Donald.
Meanwhile, all-rounder Albie Morkel has been called up to the South African squad because of an injury to batsman Dean Elgar.
Fast bowler Wayne Parnell also suffered a pinched nerve during a Supersport Series match but has been cleared for the ODIS.
Elgar suffered a knee injury – thought to be ligament damage which might need surgery – during the Knights’ innings defeat against the Cape Cobras in a Supersport Series match over the weekend. Morkel has not played for South Africa since November 2010.
After returning injured from the 2011 Champions League in India, he had an appendix operation at the start of the local domestic season.
Over the weekend Morkel scored 127 not out and 55 not out in a Supersport match against the Warriors.
Sri Lanka play a warm-up game against a Cobras Invitation XI in Brackenfell today.