Sri Lanka vs South Africa, 2nd T20I at Colombo, SL v SA, Sep 12 2021 - Match Result

Maharaj: All credit to my team, they've made my life easier. They've stepped up and stuck to simple plans. It's important we keep the positives and keep building on that. Maybe we can start better, bowl better in the powerplay and some things in batting as well. We've shown vast improvement over the last two years. We read the conditions early today and decided spin would play a role. Aiden did his own and got three wickets against left-hand batsmen, it was a tactical thing. Shamsi really opened up one end and the bowlers made my life easier, whoever came on did the job.

Shanaka: We were targeting 140-150 and we knew it will turn later, it won't be easy in later part of the game. The batsmen should concentrate more on the game, we were not able to capitalise on the start and the South African bowlers change their pace, they bowled beautifully. Our batsmen needed to rotate the strike more. We have to change our approach, batting in middle period has been a concern for long period, consistently for 2-3 years. It's a major part of the concern. We will come up with better plans in the next game. It's our approach and mindset that needs to change in the T20s, we should have a strong mindset and we need t have a belief in the team.

Shamsi is Player of the Match: I'm just one part of the bowling unit and I've to do my job. We've got a lot of quality bowlers in the attack. Thse pitches take a lot more turn than back home, that's something we've got get used to. If they don't turn, we can't complain and adjust, we've to fight fire with fire. The celebrations come out a bit more especially when you've been hit for a six before that, We do a lot of hard work and it's just a bit of enjoyment.

That's all we have from today then, with the third game left for Tuesday. Until then, it's goodbye and good luck from me, Vishal Dikshit, Saurabh and Thilak. Stay safe everyone.

10.45pm: Comprehensive win by South Africa, and they've got a winning 2-0 lead in the series. First time on tour that a chasing team has won, and this is South Africa's sixth straight T20I win. Their best streak is 7 wins, back in 2009. This is right now their second-best streak, equalling a six-game streak in 2010. This is also their third straight T20I series win - they've now beaten West Indies, Ireland and Sri Lanka consecutively. Today's victory was set up by the bowlers, who shot Sri Lanka out for 103. The total might have sparked some interest with early wickets, but Quinton de Kock put paid to that fanciful hope with a measured knock, filled with sparkling boundaries. What a day for Aiden Markram too: 3 for 21 with the ball, completely unexpected perhaps. And stayed till the end in the chase with 21*. Will he be the Player of the Match? Or de Kock? Or Tabraiz Shamsi, who bowled quite beautifully to take 3 for 20? We'll find out soon.

Peanut: "Where would we be without dekock eh? What a wonderful player. "

Just 12 needed.

Udam: "Sri lankan batting order have to work on sweeps, hardly saw a sweep against spinners from current batting line up. "

Slip and leg-slip in.

James : "Markham's role in this game is almost a bowling all rounder. " -- hah! Well there's still 29 to get, so he could get a majority of them and be a proper allrounder.