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Right, so that's all that we have for you from this low-scoring humdinger. We have three matches lined up for you tomorrow (one today and two tomorrow if you're reading this from the host nations) - Afghanistan and Uganda, England and Scotland, the Netherlands and Nepal all kick off their 2024 Men's T20 World Cup campaign. Join us right here on Sportskeeda for our coverage of all of them, and a lot more! This is Rajarshi Das, signing off on behalf of Pragadeesh Shanmugam. Good night - see you tomorrow!
By no means was this the ideal T20I game to spark excitement for the game in the United States, but the ardent lovers of the sport sure might have been hooked to their television sets having consumed T20 action from the SA20 or the Indian Premier League this year. As it turned out, Sri Lanka sure had the minerals to prevail today - Hasaranga's decision to bat first, and lack of application from their batters put the 2014 Men's T20 World Cup winners on the back foot for good measure. Lots to take away from this game for them before they face Bangladesh at Dallas.
South Africa, having had a field day with the ball, had their batters being put to the test, and although there was a bit of falter in between, they came through, taking the two points. Having claimed the top-spot, South Africa will consider themselves favourites to keep hold of it going into their next game against the Netherlands at this very ground, and there sure will be no talk or visuals of what transpired between the two sides the last time they met at a T20 World Cup in their camp....
Aiden Markram (South Africa captain): Happy with the win, the batting was a bit up-and-down. Tells about the wicket. Tough one from a batting point of view. Got to try to take the pitch out of it. Hopefully, we can take a bit of learning out of it from the guys who spent time out there and come up with ideas to how we can put the bowlers under pressure. Lots of different conditions as you move around the tournament. Fortunately we have our next two (games) here, have an idea as to how it's going to play. Fantastic day for him (Nortje) for his mental confidence point of view. He is massively loved in the dressing room, the boys will be incredibly happy and proud of him. Hopefully, it sort of kicks off for a massive World Cup for him.
Wanindu Hasaranga (Sri Lanka captain): Our batters tried to look at 160-170, to be honest, this is a 120-130 wicket, specially with our bowlers. We went with our strength, our bowling, that's why we batted first. We wanted to bat first and put up a score. This is early in the tournament. We have three more games, we want to do much better, specially with the batting unit. If they do well, we can finish well.
Anrich Nortje (Player of the Match) - Definitely, happy to to get some momentum going. Great to get the result our way as we worked very hard for the past few days. I am very happy as we clicked in all facets. Some wickets went my way and I don't want to look too far. Kudos to the boys. Happy to have pulled it off for the team. We didn't know what to expect but we had a couple of rumours that it's going to be up and down. The boys did well at the start and me coming at the later stages to hit the strap and add a different element to the attack. I find it hard hard to bowl on these drop-in tracks because of where we land while bowling. I also find it hard on these squares but it's all about adapting quickly and will look to bowl in a best rhythm
Match summary:
South Africa win by 6 wickets with 22 balls to spare
A quick finish was expected from the Proteas' top-order, given the kind of ball-striking ability the likes of Quinton de Kock and Aiden Markram possess. Instead, we saw a completely different powerplay unfold - ahead of the likes of Matheesha Pathirana, Maheesh Theekshana and himself, Wanindu Hasaranga decided to make use of his medium-pace options with the new ball, and that turned out to be a decent move.
Angelo Mathews got quite a lot of purchase off the deck with the new ball, and while Nuwan Thushara was awry with his line and length to start with, he drew first blood, landing it on a Test-match-length and getting Hendricks to nick to slip. De Kock and Markram tried to push along, didn't happen. Markram lofted one gloriously over cover off Thushara before being done in by an away-seaming delivery from Shanaka, edging to Kamindu Mendis at slip.
De Kock, then joined by Tristan Stubbs, really had to play the patient game from then on. There was the odd play and miss every now and then - boundaries were really hard to come by. De Kock, having done a lot of hard work, chipped one back to Wanindu Hasaranga. Stubbs followed soon after, smashing one at Charith Asalanka at cover off the Sri Lankan skipper, but the Proteas needed only 20 runs by then.
Heinrich Klaasen, joined by Miller after a while, played the waiting game, saw off a few lethal deliveries from Matheesha Pathirana, before launching into Hasaranga in his third over. A six and a boundary in the 15th over brought the equation down to single figures, and the game was done shortly afterwards. Sri Lanka sure put up a really commendable fight, but they had far too little to defend. Presentations coming up in a bit...
Well, that is that! A total of 130 in the first innings would have made for a great watch - possibly a last-over thriller. All in hindsight for Sri Lanka now - they went head-to-head, toe to toe against an intimidating South African batting line-up with immense assistance from the wicket, but 77 was far too less.
16.2 Wanindu Hasaranga to David Miller, FOUR! South Africa start their campaign with a victory. Charges down the pitch and converts the flighted delivery to a low full toss. Smacked hard down the ground and the ball beats long-on comfortably
16.1 Wanindu Hasaranga to Heinrich Klaasen, spins away from a good length, Klaasen cuts it to deep cover for one
Might have landed outside leg stump, this one - clearly did. No need for ball-tracking here - impact might have been outside leg stump itself! Right - three to get....