Sri Lanka and South Africa met at Sophia Gardens, Cardiff today (24) in a warm-up game ahead of the ICC World Cup 2019 which will commence on 30th May. South Africa recorded an easy win by 87 runs after batting first but Sri Lanka will be more pleased with their skipper Dimuth Karunaratne and veteran Angelo Mathews scoring half centuries to set them up for the World Cup matches.
>>ICC Cricket World Cup 2019<<
Toss
After a successful stint having the captaincy hat on in Scotland, today, Dimuth Karunaratne won his first toss donning Sri Lanka’s new World Cup jersey and asked Faf Du Plessis ‘ South Africa to bat first.
Read: Karunaratne ready for the challenge after coming in from wilderness
South Africa Innings
The leader of the Sri Lanka bowling attack, Lasith Malinga wasn’t available for this match, so the new ball was shared by Nuwan Pradeep and Suranga Lakmal.
Hashim Amla and Aiden Markram were the ones to face the Sri Lankan pacers upfront as their regular opener Quinton de Kock was rested. Both of them found their rhythm quickly and took South Africa to a flying start, but Lakmal was able to dismiss Markram for 21.
From there on, the fielding team had to chase the leather Du Plessis and Amla found regular boundaries and put on a massive 138 partnership in 17.3 overs to raise the total to 175. The pair seemed to enjoy the wrist spin of Jeffrey Vandersay in particular, as he was taken to the cleaners in his 2 overs for 30 runs.
Amla was deceived by a Jeewan Mendis’s googly when he was on 65 and in the very next over, Du Plessis found Lakmal’s safe hands off Dhananjaya de Silva’s bowling.
After that early assault, the Sri Lanka bowlers were successful in restraining the South African middle order to 292 in 47 overs mainly thanks to left armer Isuru Udana’s exceptional spell of 1 for 42 in 10 overs. He seemed to have perfected the art of death bowling as the 31-year-old mixed his variations to trick the batsman, controlling the innings which looked like sailing towards a 370+ score before.
But costly three overs at the end took South Africa to 338 on the back of cameos from Dwaine Pretorius and Chris Morris.
SLC launches World Cup song
Sri Lanka Cricket launched a song today, (24) in hope of getting the country to rally….
Sri Lanka Innings
Kusal Janith and captain Dimuth Karunaratne opened the innings for Sri Lanka but in just 2nd ball of Sri Lanka’s innings, Janith was dismissed trying to slash an expensive shot off Lungi Ngidi’s pace even before the run account was credited.
Thirimanna’s stay was shortened by Ngidi too and Sri Lanka batters were put into a real test against some hostile fast bowling by Ngidi and Kagiso Rabada.
Kusal Mendis and Karunaratne had to bide their time but were able to come out unscathed in the first spell of bowling. Mendis played a few delightful boundaries before he was dismissed for a rapid 37 runs off 31 balls.
Then the current captain and former captain Angelo Mathews orchestrated a 98-run partnership in 16.2 overs with an excellent combination of attack and defense.
The skipper scored a composed 87 runs and Mathews contributed with a well-made 64. Sri Lanka were well in the chase before these two were dismissed and fell cheaply once they were gone for 251.
Read Also : Mahela Jayawardene named Brand Ambassador for World Cup
Injury Scares
In the 18th over of the South African innings, Avishka Fernando put in a dive on the grassy practice wickets and immediately looked in some discomfort. He seemed to have hurt his ankle and was stretchered off the field.
Injury concerns for Sri Lanka before the World Cup
Later in the broadcast, it was said that scans suggested he’d suffered a mild ankle injury and was in the process of getting it iced. Fernando didn’t make an appearance with the bat in the 2nd innings.
In Udana’s last over (47th over of the South Africa innings), he was hit on the palm of his right hand fiercely by Chris Morris and he didn’t come into bat in the 2nd innings either.
In the final match interviews Karunaratne revealed that both players are fine and will play the next practice match, much to the relief of Sri Lankan fans.
Next
Sri Lanka will meet Australia in their 2nd warm-up game on 27th of May at The Rose Bowl, Southampton while South Africa will play West Indies on 26th at County Ground, Bristol.
Result
| Batsmen | R | B | 4s | 6s | SR | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hashim Amla | b Jeevan Mendis | 65 | 61 | 9 | 0 | 106.56 |
| Aiden Markram | c Kusal Perera b Suranga Lakmal | 21 | 15 | 2 | 0 | 140.00 |
| Faf du Plessis | c Suranga Lakmal b Dhananjaya de Silva | 88 | 69 | 7 | 4 | 127.54 |
| Rassie van der Dussen | c Dhananjaya de Silva b Nuwan Pradeep | 40 | 41 | 5 | 1 | 97.56 |
| David Miller | c Dimuth Karunaratne b Isuru Udana | 5 | 15 | 0 | 0 | 33.33 |
| JP Duminy | c Kusal Mendis b Suranga Lakmal | 22 | 29 | 1 | 0 | 75.86 |
| Andile Phehlukwayo | c Jeffery Vandersay b Nuwan Pradeep | 35 | 34 | 3 | 1 | 102.94 |
| Dwaine Pretorius | not out | 25 | 23 | 3 | 0 | 108.70 |
| Chris Morris | not out | 26 | 13 | 2 | 1 | 200.00 |
| Extras | 11 (b 0 , lb 6 , nb 0, w 5, pen 0) |
| Total | 338/7 (50 Overs, RR: 6.76) |
| Fall of Wickets | 1-47 (6.1) Aiden Markram, 2-175 (23.5) Hashim Amla, 3-175 (24.2) Faf du Plessis, 4-211 (31.4) David Miller, 5-228 (35.5) Rassie van der Dussen, 6-259 (41.1) JP Duminy, 7-286 (45.5) Andile Phehlukwayo, |
| Bowling | O | M | R | W | Econ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Suranga Lakmal | 9 | 0 | 63 | 2 | 7.00 | |
| Nuwan Pradeep | 10 | 0 | 77 | 2 | 7.70 | |
| Thisara Perera | 6 | 1 | 31 | 0 | 5.17 | |
| Isuru Udana | 10 | 0 | 42 | 1 | 4.20 | |
| Jeevan Mendis | 5 | 0 | 45 | 1 | 9.00 | |
| Jeffery Vandersay | 2 | 0 | 30 | 0 | 15.00 | |
| Dhananjaya de Silva | 8 | 0 | 44 | 1 | 5.50 | |
| Batsmen | R | B | 4s | 6s | SR | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kusal Perera | c David Miller b Lungi Ngidi | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Dimuth Karunaratne | c Aiden Markram b Kagiso Rabada | 87 | 92 | 12 | 0 | 94.57 |
| Lahiru Thirimanne | c David Miller b Lungi Ngidi | 10 | 11 | 2 | 0 | 90.91 |
| Kusal Mendis | lbw b Andile Phehlukwayo | 37 | 31 | 6 | 0 | 119.35 |
| Angelo Mathews | c Chris Morris b JP Duminy | 64 | 66 | 6 | 1 | 96.97 |
| Dhananjaya de Silva | b Andile Phehlukwayo | 5 | 17 | 0 | 0 | 29.41 |
| Jeevan Mendis | c David Miller b Andile Phehlukwayo | 18 | 12 | 2 | 0 | 150.00 |
| Milinda Siriwardana | c Aiden Markram b Andile Phehlukwayo | 5 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 125.00 |
| Thisara Perera | not out | 8 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 72.73 |
| Jeffery Vandersay | c JP Duminy b Dwaine Pretorius | 3 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 42.86 |
| Suranga Lakmal | lbw b Imran Tahir | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 50.00 |
| Extras | 13 (b 0 , lb 3 , nb 0, w 10, pen 0) |
| Total | 251/10 (42.2 Overs, RR: 5.93) |
| Fall of Wickets | 1-0 (0.2) Kusal Perera, 2-10 (2.1) Lahiru Thirimanne, 3-72 (13.1) Kusal Mendis, 4-170 (29.3) Dimuth Karunaratne, 5-199 (35.2) Dhananjaya de Silva, 6-220 (37.5) Jeevan Mendis, 7-235 (38.6) Angelo Mathews, 8-236 (39.4) Milinda Siriwardana, 9-245 (41.3) Jeffery Vandersay, 10-251 (42.2) Suranga Lakmal, |
| Bowling | O | M | R | W | Econ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lungi Ngidi | 6 | 2 | 12 | 2 | 2.00 | |
| Kagiso Rabada | 7 | 0 | 40 | 1 | 5.71 | |
| Chris Morris | 4 | 0 | 31 | 0 | 7.75 | |
| Andile Phehlukwayo | 7 | 0 | 36 | 4 | 5.14 | |
| Imran Tahir | 5.2 | 0 | 31 | 1 | 5.96 | |
| Dwaine Pretorius | 5 | 0 | 34 | 1 | 6.80 | |
| Tabraiz Shamsi | 5 | 0 | 37 | 0 | 7.40 | |
| JP Duminy | 3 | 0 | 27 | 1 | 9.00 | |
>>Click For More Cricket News<<
 in a warm-up game ahead of the ICC World Cup 2019 which will commence on 30th May. South Africa recorded an easy win by 87 runs after batting first but Sri Lanka will be more pleased with their skipper Dimuth Karunaratne and veteran Angelo Mathews scoring half centuries to set them up for the World Cup matches.){kind=link}