South Africa vs Sri Lanka: Quick Flicks of the day

T20 is an abridged version of ODI, and today it got further abridged to seven overs a side, courtesy the rain. South Africa got the better of the Sri Lankan bowling attack, and South Africa’s pace battery decimated the hosts to win by a massive margin of 32 runs. Today it was the rain that stole the limelight, and what followed was cultured slogging by the Proteas, who took the Lankan bowling by the scruff of its neck and posted a winning total.

Moments from the match that stayed and lingered:

CLUELESS ABOUT THE GOOD SCORE

Experts kept conjecturing about what a good score would be, but South Africa went on to set what turned out to be a winning total. They scored 78 at 11.14 per over.

FAST AND FURIOUS RUNNING BETWEEN THE WICKETS

Scoring eleven two’s, the South Africans were quick between the wickets, especially AB De Villiers and Faf Du Plessis. Their coordination and quickness can partly be owed to the mind set of the batsmen, who were looking to score as many as possible in the meager seven overs. De Villiers was the highest scorer with 30 off 13 balls, while Du Plessis and Duminy played second fiddle, scoring thirteen and twelve off eleven and five balls respectively.

ESCAPED INJURY

No physical injury was caused on the fourth ball of the first over when Dilshan and De Villiers bumped into each other, only to have Dilshan out for a duck. The Lankan was crucial to the Lankan chase, and De Villiers made a fantastic attempt to collect the ball on the run and dive forth to dislodge the stumps. Every move has to be fast in a T20 game, but for a moment Dilshan forgot about that, leaving Sri Lanka in dire straits.

FIELDING LAPSE

The third ball of the Lankan innings from Morne Morkel that Sangakkara faced was an accurate swinging delivery worthy of a wicket. The batsman tried to hit it but only managed to send the ball soaring towards mid-on, where Albie Morkel dropped an easy catch. This however did not prove costly, as Sangakkara could not do much.

South Africans and Australians do not drop such catches as they are touted as the best fielders. In the match that followed, Shane Watson dropped the “giant” Chris Gayle’s catch, who then clobbered the Aussie bowling and hit a quick fire fifty.