Sri Lanka was cruising at 116 for 2 at the end of the 17th over after Niroshan Dickwella and Upul Tharanga gave a blistering start to their chase of 300 runs. Then, South Africa skipper AB De Villiers had to turn to his main wicket-taking option, Imran Tahir to break the momentum and he delivered excellently.

In the second ball of the over,  experienced Dinesh Chandimal struck cleanly to De Villiers who fumbled the ball which went a couple of meters to his right, Chandimal called for a quick single, De Villiers got back up, hit the stumps directly and caught Chandimal short of his crease.

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In the very next ball, Chamara Kapugedara failed to read a wrong-un and was struck plumb in front and the Islanders slid to 116 for 4. Sri Lanka were then bowled out

“I think my run-out was the turning point in the game, after that we kept on losing wickets. If I could have stayed at the crease with Upul for about another 10 overs, the result would have favoured us.” Dinesh Chandimal talking to ThePapare.com after the match said.

Kusal Janith Perera who batted out of positions at number 6, played a very responsible yet ineffective knock 44 off 66 deliveries with 5 fours to remain unbeaten. He ran out of partners as the Proteas’ finished off the Lankan innings with more than 8 overs to spare.

Photos: Sri Lanka Vs South Africa – ICC Champions Trophy

“We got a good start, but we lost quite a bit of quick wickets in the middle order and none of the set batsmen went onto finish the game, I think those were the main reasons, why we lost. After we lost two experienced players in Chandimal and Kapugedara in two successive balls, the pressure was right back onto us” Kusal Janith Perera shared his views to ThePapare.com on what went wrong for Sri Lanka.

Tahir who took 4 for 27 off his 8.3 overs has now taken 24 wickets at an average of 15.79 in his last 10 matches against Sri Lanka, his best against any team playing the ICC Champions Trophy. Out of all his deliveries on Saturday, 40 deliveries landed on a good length. This was also Tahir’s eighth four-wicket haul in ODIs, which is the most by any spinner since his debut in 2011.

“Tahir’s main weapon is his wrong-un and we try to pick him off his hand. If we show him that we play negatively, he becomes a real threat so we wanted to rotate the strike with the occasional boundary off his loose deliveries but because we gave him a quite a bit of wickets in his first spell, we were not able to execute our plans against him.” Perera said about Tahir.

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Sri Lanka has now lost 8 ODIs at a stretch to South Africa and will rue the fact that a target of 300 could have been chased down comfortably if they defied their main threat, Tahir from taking regular wickets and put out his celebratory run.

Even though Sri Lanka has struggled against Tahir in the recent past, he believes Sri Lanka is still a quality side who plays spin well, Sri Lankans are very good players of spin and I am not overly confident thinking it’s a Sri Lanka game because I always have plans for different opposition. Depending on the day, I try and perform my level best to this great nation. I wasn’t expecting any spin, watching the game the other day but there was something, especially with my variation. Pleased with the way it came out today,” Tahir said.