With hopes of watching more evenly contested cricket through the rest of the year, this is goodbye from Nitin Sundar, Alex Winter and the rest of the crew at ESPNcricinfo. Cheers!
Right, that draws to an end our coverage of the first ODI of 2012, and a quite extraordinary one at that. Sri Lanka have plenty of soul-searching to do. That pitch had some evening zip in it, but that doesn't justify 43 all-out from a line-up that has Sanga, Mahela and Dilshan in it. Things fell into place superbly for the hosts. Can they carry it on through the rest of the series? I leave you with Sid Ravi's match report that is getting updated faster than Sri Lanka collapsed earlier.
Presentations:
Morne Morkel is the Man of the Match. "Slow start for me this summer, but it was important to work through the tough periods. Luckily, I had the help of our support staff and could work through that. Lopsy has been unbelievable in the last couple of years and it was great to have him at the other end. Lots of energy from Steyn too, coming in first change."
AB de Villiers: "Dream start for me as captain. Some individuals stoop up there - Morne Morkel and Amla. I thought there was something in the pitch for the bowlers and we used it. Guys running in and bowling at 140+ was good."
Dilshan, understandably isn't too happy. "The key was the first five overs. They bowled really good lines and it was very difficult to come back. We bowled well in the last few overs and came back a bit but unfortunately our batsmen couldn't put runs. Malinga is one of the best in the business and it is great to have him in the team. We don't have much time between the games and will be travelling tomorrow, hope to do better in the next match.
Tsotsobe: "Instead of staying out and mourning about not being selected, I am just stricking with the team. I have put in some hard yards and I think the flat wickets have helped me a lot. Our bowlers are more likely to hit that back of a length and make it tough for Sri Lankans."
And that's the game. And oh deary me was that a hideous innings for Sri Lanka. After the euphoria of the win the 2nd Test match, Sri Lanka have slid backwards very significantly with a crunching defeat and now an absolute humiliation...Just to confirm, this is Sri Lanka's lowest score in ODI cricket and the third largest margin of victory in ODIs. What on earth happened? Some decent bowling at the top of the order did most of the damage and some very ordinary strokes sunk a damaged ship far faster than it should have gone down.
CRD Fernando lbw b Peterson 0 (3m 1b 0x4 0x6) SR: 0.00
END OF OVER:20 | 3 Runs 1 Wkt | SL: 43/9 (259 runs required from 30 overs, RR: 2.15, RRR: 8.63)
- Ajantha Mendis3 (13b)
- Dilhara Fernando0 (0b)
- Morne Morkel6-2-10-4
- Robin Peterson3-0-5-1
CKB Kulasekara c Peterson b M Morkel 19 (74m 46b 0x4 0x6) SR: 41.30
16 more for Sri Lanka to evade complete humiliation...
END OF OVER:19 | 3 Runs | SL: 40/8 (262 runs required from 31 overs, RR: 2.10, RRR: 8.45)
- Ajantha Mendis2 (11b)
- Kosala Kulasekara17 (42b)
- Robin Peterson3-0-5-1
- Morne Morkel5-2-7-3
END OF OVER:18 | 2 Runs | SL: 37/8 (265 runs required from 32 overs, RR: 2.05, RRR: 8.28)
- Kosala Kulasekara16 (41b)
- Ajantha Mendis0 (6b)
- Morne Morkel5-2-7-3
- Robin Peterson2-0-2-1
A gorgeous sunset in Paarl...
END OF OVER:17 | 1 Run | SL: 35/8 (267 runs required from 33 overs, RR: 2.05, RRR: 8.09)
- Ajantha Mendis0 (6b)
- Kosala Kulasekara14 (35b)
- Robin Peterson2-0-2-1
- Albie Morkel2-0-2-0
