Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Flashback: Five SA-Sri Lanka World Cup clashes
SOUTH Africa and Sri Lanka have played 80 one-day internationals against each other, with the Proteas winning 45, while Sri Lanka have 33 victories.
We pick five past World Cup clashes between the two nations as they are set to square up today (10.30am start SA time) in Delhi …
2003 World Cup: The Duckworth-Lewis blunder
After the run-out of the 1999 World Cup, no one would've thought South Africa could match that level of self-destruction, but they did in the very next edition.
In what was a must-win match against Sri Lanka, South Africa looked on their way to qualifying for the Super Six stage of a home World Cup when they required 269 to win at Kingsmead Stadium in 2003.
With rain promising to interfere with their chase, the South African dressing-room pulled out calculators and somehow reached the conclusion that 229/6 would give the side enough to go through – only to find out the 229/6 total only gave them a tie, and getting eliminated as a result.
2015 World Cup: The first play-off victory
This was South Africa's first victory in the play-off stages of the World Cup as they beat Sri Lanka by nine wickets in Sydney.
The victory was spearheaded by JP Duminy's hat-trick, a bowling performance that helped South Africa bowl Sri Lanka out for 133 in the quarter-finals.
Hashim Amla (78 off 57) and Faf du Plessis (21 off 31) saw to it that South Africa reached a second World Cup semi-final by registering a nine-wicket victory over the subcontinent team.
2019 World Cup: Consolation victory
Going into this campaign, there wasn't much expectation on South Africa to win the World Cup.
The side had lost Anrich Nortjé due to injury weeks before the World Cup, Dale Steyn carried his into the tournament, while the return of AB de Villiers was rejected by Cricket South Africa.
With so many things going against the Proteas, coupled with the losses to England and Bangladesh early on in the tournament, the nine-wicket victory over Sri Lanka was a relief, but by no means a source of hope that they would progress any further in the tournament.
Du Plessis (96 not out off 105) and Amla (80 not off 103) again saw the team home.
2007 World Cup: South Africa survive scare
This was another nail-bitter that South
Africa almost lost.
After a fast-bowling masterclass from Charl Langeveldt – who picked up a five-for and helped bowl Sri Lanka out for 209 – somehow the Proteas created a contest out of the match, despite the low total set by the 1996 champions.
The Proteas batters struggled to put together partnerships and lost wickets in clusters before Robin Peterson and Langeveldt had to finish the game off with 10 balls to spare, surviving a huge upset in the process.
1992 World Cup: Sri Lanka won by three wickets
South Africa had a successful start to their first World Cup, when they beat Australia courtesy of a masterclass from Kepler Wessels in their opening fixture.
Up against Sri Lanka, South Africa fell short by three wickets after being dismissed for 195, with Peter Kirsten and Wessels top-scoring with 47 off 81 and 40 off 94 respectively.
Despite Allan Donald's blistering 10-over spell of 3/42, Sri Lanka held on to win the match by three wickets with only one ball to spare.