AB de Villiers leads an animated team talk

Team huddles have become customary at the start of an innings, when the captain usually delivers his final words before the action gets underway, but this one was different. As South Africa prepared for their final appearance at this World T20, it was AB de Villiers, the ODI and Test captain, and not Faf du Plessis, the T20 captain, who did the talking. De Villiers led an animated talk in which the only words the television microphones could pick up were "energy, boys, energy," but, with rumours swirling about de Villiers' international workload, it aroused suspicions of his international future.

Tillakaratne Dilshan wanted to bow out with a bang and had helped take Sri Lanka to 45 without loss by the fifth over. He took on both the quicks and the slower bowlers, and seemed to be in control. But his partner and stand-in captain Dinesh Chandimal couldn't keep up when the pace was taken off the ball. He went for an expansive cover drive without moving his front foot across off the first delivery he faced from Aaron Phangiso. The ball went straight on, snuck between bat and pad and rattled Chandimal's stumps. Dilshan had a few things to say as he walked off but whatever it was, it was too late.

Farhaan Behardien is South Africa's most underrated cricketer, but he showed his value with the ball today. After being gifted an opening wicket, Behardien thought he had the biggest scalp when Dilshan tried a switch hit but was struck on the pads. Umpire S Ravi rightly thought the ball was sliding down leg but Behardien got his own back. Dilshan brought out a conventional sweep off the next ball and missed again. He was hit in front and Ravi had no doubt that would have gone on to his the stumps, so Dilshan was sent on his way.

Hashim Amla and Quinton de Kock were involved in a run-out in the previous match against West Indies, which saw Amla lose his wicket, but the pair had not learnt from their mistakes. Amla played a Suranga Lakmal delivery to Dilshan at backward point, took a step forward and then decided against the run, but de Kock was not paying attention. He has halfway down the pitch and then turned back without much haste when he saw Amla's disinterest. Dilshan had already collected and released the ball and his direct hit took out middle stump at the non-striker's end with de Kock nowhere near his ground.

Both teams were playing a match that could have been; it could have been a shoot-out for the semi-finals. Both South Africa and Sri Lanka, however, were knocked out before the last league match of the tournament. In keeping with the mood, a catch that should have been the grab of the tournament was not. Amla had offered half a chance to Lahiru Thirimanne at midwicket the ball before he drove one uppishly to Jeffrey Vandersay at short extra cover. It was hit hard but Vandersay gave it everything. He leapt to his right and got his fingers to the ball, but could not hold on.