Faf du Plessis and Hashim Amla struck unbeaten half-centuries as South Africa coasted to a nine-wicket victory at the Riverside Ground on Friday to dent Sri Lanka’s hopes of making it to the 2019 World Cup semi-finals.
Du Pಞlessis and Co. not only grabbed a consolation win but also dished out a clinical display with both ball and bat as they emerged victorious by a comprehensive margi🍒n.
Earlier, Sri Lanka had a disastrous start to t𒈔heir innings w💮hen captain Dimuth Karunaratne was caught at slip by Du Plessis off the first ball of the match, delivered by Kagiso Rabada.
Kusal Perera and Avishka Fernando batted positively to take the score to 67 for one in the 10th over before Fernando mistimed a ♏shot, sending the ball steepling into the air before it was taken by Du Plessis.
Perera was the next to go, chopping a Dwaine Pretorius deli𓆉very onto his stumps as Sri Lanka slipped to 72/3 in the 12th over.
Angelo Mathewsꦬ was bowled by Morris for 11 and Kusal Mendis departed for 23. Every recognized batsman apart from Karunaratne reached double-figures but none went on to play big innings.
Brief Scores: South Africa 206 for 1 (du Plessis 96 not out, Amla 80 not out) beat Sri Lanka 203 (Avishka 30, Pretori🤡us 3 for 25, Morris 3 for 46) by nine wickets.
Here’s how Twitter reacted:
You see, this is how this team can dominate! This is exactly what they do in bilateral series'.
— Alviro Petersen (@AlviroPetersen)
South Africa v Sri Lanka:
World Cup 2015: SA won by 9 wickets
World Cup 2019: SA won by 9 wickets
— Sarang Bhalerao (@bhaleraosarang)
hum to doobe hain sanam, tumko bhi lekar doobenge – Faf to SL?
— Gaurav Kalra (@gauravkalra75)
South Africa wins. In the process helps England too. Well…South Africa has been helping English cricket for a while now. Nothin new ☺️🤗
— Aakash Chopra (@cricketaakash)
//twitter.com/hershybru/status/1144551195ꩲ236868096
SA too late SL too dismissive, overall an one sided-affair whic💃h had slight chances for the latter but that too vanished now.
— Reemma malhotrra (@ReemaMalhotra8)
South Africa to Sri Lanka.
— Sagar (@sagarcasm)
Radio silence 🙂😜
— Hemang Badani (@hemangkbadani)
