That does it for this game. Abhishek Purohit signing off. Cheers
Chandimal starts with a huge win on captaincy debut. Chandimal: "This is my first game, good to start on winning note. Credit to the batsmen first of all. Sanga and Mahela are wily old foxes, they know how to do it. We learn lots from Sanga. I have three former captains, they give lot of advice to me on the field." When asked if he wasn't really tested as a captain in this game, he says he did demote himself down the order!
AB de Villiers: "Its not the end of the series, I know my boys will fight back. Not a lot of positives, but we can only improve. It is mentally hard to accept. But we will fight back. [Our record in SA] is something we are aware of, but we would like to win the series. We missed Hash [Amla], he is one of our class players. We were way below par but I know what the players are capable of, the second game is on the same field, we know the conditions quite well now."
Kumar Sangakkara is the Man of the Match. Sangakkara: "We had a bit of luck to start. Upul batted well. When he got out Mahela came in and raised the tempo, he had nearly caught up with me when he got out. It then became a bit easier. It was a bit two-paced, it was about facing enough deliveries and get going, I took 34 overs to get going but I stuck in there. Morkel bowled good spells, it was about absorbing that and targetting the others."
Full-blown demolition night in Colombo. Sangakkara made 169, South Africa responded with 140. The ball was coming on quite nicely, but no South Africa batsman was prepared to hang around long enough to take advantage. Ingram and Duminy got good deliveries, the others conspired in their own dismissals. No one apart from Sangakkara on either side made more than 43. What an assault that was from Sanga, was so sudden and complete it totally shocked South Africa
Sumith: "Glad that Thisara Perera gave a good reply to the Sri Lankan selectors."
jjazeel: "To all South africans, I can understand your feelings, this is exactly how we felt after the 1st ODI in south africa, where our team got all out for 43 runs"
AM Phangiso st †Sangakkara b Herath 0 (7m 13b 0x4 0x6) SR: 0.00
Chris: "So Sangakara has beaten South African XI. Go figure !!!"
END OF OVER:31 | 1 Run | SA: 139/9 (182 runs required from 19 overs, RR: 4.48, RRR: 9.57)
- Aaron Phangiso0 (9b)
- Chris Morris8 (16b)
- Thisara Perera7-0-31-3
- Rangana Herath8-1-24-2
Michael: "To me, it seems like the Proteas are like a jersey with a loose thread. Instead of taking the time to cut the loose thread off, restoring the jersey to its former glory, the selectors, CSA, whoever is just yanking at the thread, just making it worse and unraveling it further. I think it's time that SA take a little time and just rebuild."
Chris Thompson: "@Uwaisul: His resume was longer than the time some SA batsmen spent in the middle"
END OF OVER:30 | (wicket maiden) | SA: 138/9 (183 runs required from 20 overs, RR: 4.60, RRR: 9.15)
- Aaron Phangiso0 (4b)
- Chris Morris7 (15b)
- Rangana Herath8-1-24-2
- Thisara Perera6-0-30-3
M Morkel c Thirimanne b Herath 0 (3m 2b 0x4 0x6) SR: 0.00
END OF OVER:29 | 4 Runs 1 Wkt | SA: 138/8 (183 runs required from 21 overs, RR: 4.75, RRR: 8.71)
- Chris Morris7 (15b)
- Thisara Perera6-0-30-3
- Rangana Herath7-0-24-1
RJ Peterson c Tharanga b Perera 29 (45m 37b 2x4 0x6) SR: 78.37