what a grand way to seal the win, a powerful six, dead straight, clean as you like, that's out of the ground, and Sri Lanka have picked up their first win of the series
South Africa vs Sri Lanka, 4th ODI at Kimberley, Jan 20 2012 - Match Result
Sri Lanka won by 5 wickets (with 8 balls remaining)
There were steady improvements from Sri Lanka through the series, after the embarrassment of 43 all out, and they finally get a victory. Perera is the man of the moment - his six-hitting shouldn't obscure the big wickets he got earlier in the day - but there were superb hands from Tillakaratne Dilshan, finally finding form, and the youngster Dinesh Chandimal, who continues to impress at the international level. South Africa's fielding wasn't what it should have been towards the end - there was the Morkel drop, but there were plenty of fumbles in the field, and innumerable run-out chances were spurned.
Baundule sums it up: "Perera turned the match in Sri Lanka's favor with those crucial two wickets. And finished the job extremely well with the bat. It's a pity that he could not get a match before the series was lost."
Post-match presentation:
AB de Villiers: "Very good game, we batted quite well up fornt, could have scored more in the last 10. They batted really well, chased down 300. I'll take responsibility for losing my wicket at a bad time, we could have got perhaps 330 if I stayed till the end. There are other areas for the team to work on. I wasn't too happy with our fielding, it wasn't the best outfield to field on either. Perera played extremely well, he made my job very difficult."
Tillakaratne Dilshan: "Fantastic effort. We tried to keep them to 250-260, but AB batted really well, at one stage I thought they could reach 350, but we came back well in the last 20 overs. We want to finish the series strongly, unfortunately previous game was rained out or we might have had a good decider. I was under pressure, and I am happy to come back to form."
The Man of the Match is Thisara Perera. "This is my first match in the series, I think I've done well. this is my normal batting, I like left-arm spinners. I want to bat well in the next game as well."
Abhishek Purohit is slaving over a match report, which will be updated in a few minutes. And check back in a bit for stories from Firdose Moonda, who has been watching this closely in Kimberley.
Thanks for all the mails today. See you lot on Sunday for the final ODI of the season. G''night!
Field comes in
powerfully cut by Mathews, well stopped by Morkel at backward point, that spun away from him at the last moment but he managed to control it
defended back towards the bowler
eases it to long-on for a single
defended back towards the bowler
another muscular hit from Perera, forces the ball towards the bowler, who gets a hand on it to field
a full ball heading for middle, thumped in to the ground and towards the bowler
full ball between the batsman and leg stump, Perera looks to whip that to the leg side, he gets a thin edge that beats the keeper for four, only five away now
smashes it towards deep extra cover to get three this time, Sri Lanka are coasting to victory here
short of length ball outside off, slapped towards long-off for two
Parnell to bowl the 48th over
Technical trouble with Ten Cricket. Lost coverage here.
on the pads, worked towards deep midwicket for a couple
Surprise, surprise. JP Duminy is on.
a wide delivery is pushed to point for a single
a run-out chance, Tsotsobe makes a shoddy attempt to collect the throw from the deep, Mathews plays that towards deep square leg, and takes a single, Perera belatedly decides there a second, and might have been caught short if Tsotsobe had held the throw from the deep and broken the stumps
dropped, that was amateurish, certainly not expected from a South African side, Mathews looked to thrash that through the off side, it was a skier towards mid-on, Morkel settled nicely under it, somehow manages to drop that, was a sitter
De Beers Diamond Oval, Kimberley | |
Toss | South Africa, elected to bat first |
Series | |
Season | 2011/12 |
Player Of The Match | |
Series result | South Africa led the 5-match series 3-1 |
Match number | ODI no. 3228 |
Hours of play (local time) | 14.30 start, First Session 14.30-18.00, Interval 18.00-18.45, Second Session 18.45-22.15 |
Match days | 20 January 2012 - daynight (50-over match) |
ODI debut | |
Umpires | |
TV Umpire | |
Reserve Umpire | |
Match Referee |