Sri Lanka pulled off a sensational five-wicket victory in the fourth one-day international against South Africa with, but can they repeat their heroics in Sunday’s fifth match?
Betfred Odds: S Africa 4/7, Sri Lanka 11/8
The Sri Lankans were all but written off before Friday’s victory as they have been generally second best in all departments to a strong Proteas unit but they proved that there is still some fight left in the side with an excellent batting display in Kimberley.
Performances have been steadily improving after the debacle of the first ODI and they finally got over the line thanks to the skipper and Thisara Perera’s huge blows towards the death.
Dilshan’s reign as captain could well be coming to an end at the conclusion of the current trip and, if he is to lose the top job, his rapid 87 was a nice way to prove that he can still cut the mustard as an international cricketer.
The 35-year-old has not enjoyed the best of fortunes with the willow since replacing Kumar Sangakkara as captain and he had hardly made much of a contribution in the current series, but there were signs of the old Dilshan in his innings with the famous ‘Dilscoop’ shot making an appearance (Dilshan 100/30 Top Sri Lankan Batsman).
But the tourists would never have got over the line had it not been for five sixes from Perera’s bat, as his unbeaten 69 got them home.
That knock was way above his ODI average of 19 and the challenge now for the youngster is to try and build on that innings and repeat the feat next time out.
That has been one of the main problems for Sri Lanka on the current tour, with a few good days followed by a number of poor ones and AB de Villiers will be confident that his men can take the finale and end up 4-1 series winners.
Things looked good in the Northern Cape as she skipper smashed 96 himself in an imposing total but Sri Lanka proved they were World Cup finalists last year for a reason with a well-timed run chase (De Villiers 5/2 Top S Africa Batsman).
For once the hosts’ back-up bowlers did not do the business and, without Dale Steyn in the side, they possibly lacked the one man who can return late in an innings and take vital wickets to stem the run flow.
But a pace quartet of Morne Morket, Vernon Philander Lonwabo Tsotsobe and Wayne Parnell should have been good enough to do the business and it proves that even the strongest sides need their best players to dominate.
Sri Lanka bounced back in the Test series to win the second match before losing heavily in the third and it may well be that their victory on Thursday was as good as it gets in the one-day game as well, as the South Africans are clearly a much better all-round team.
But cricket is an individual game played in teams and so one or two players can turn a match and that is what happened last time out and so it is dangerous to write Sri Lanka off.
However, if normal service is resumed then there seems no reason why De Villiers will not lead his troops to another victory to end the series with another triumph and head into the two Twenty20 matches confident of taking those as well.
