Proteas eclipse Lankans yet again

Paul Martin in Bloemfontein

Another easy South African victory (Sri Lanka's 206 all out versus 207/5 from 42 overs).

It's clear as day and night that one side in this contest has eclipsed the other. That became symbolically and literally obvious as far back as last Tuesday. On that day they were celebrating Full Moon Day in Sri Lanka, but in South Africa the players in the third one-day international in the beautiful town of Paarl could look up in the evening sky and see a full eclipse of the moon.

There was only a red glow behind the moon, a reflection - said the astronomers - of various sunsets at the periphery of the shadow caused by the Earth blocking the sun's light to the moon.

When the Sri Lankans arrived in these shores they had recently beaten South Africa 3-0 in one-dayers at home, and were ranked top of all one-day sides. All that is left now of that proud record is a faint glow.

There were indeed, to continue the metaphor, a few little bright spots in an otherwise dark sky. Today Chaminda Vaas (8-2-30-1) bowled a couple of super overs, striking the in-form Jacques Kallis twice on the pads before trapping him palpably leg before. And the newly recalled Aravinda de Silva bamboozled McKenzie with his turn. The great Muralitharan also secured a plumb leg-before and was world-class as usual.

But it was as inevitable as the return of the full moon in the sky had been last Tuesday that the South Africans would go on to win the match as well. That should have been obvious once the Sri Lankans went four down within the first fifteen overs.

With the visitors all out for 206, the target was always going to be within easy reach for the rampant South Africans, who got there with five wickets and a full eight overs to spare.

From the start of their innings, young Dippenaar went after the bowling, though he fell to a superb low catch in the gully by Russel Arnold off Wickramesinghe. Nicky Boje came in a pinch-hitter and smashed a merry 40 runs off just 31 balls.

But the batting hero, and Man-of-the-Match, was Herschelle Gibbs. He was run out when the lightening-fast Jonty Rhodes called for an improbable second run. But by then the pressure on the 26-year-old opener's shoulders was visibly easing. Out of cricket for ten months including a six-month ban for involvement in cricket corruption, Gibbs had a few early narrow escapes from the dreaded upwardly raised finger, before gradually unrolling his superb array of classy strokes. He ended up with 79 off 112 balls, including one slog-sweep for six.

Afterwards Gibbs said: "It's a nice way to eventually come back. I was tentative and a bit nervous in the first two innings." (That was an understatement: he scored 0 in the Second Test, then 1 and 13 in the Third and Fourth One-Dayers.) "Now I'm nice and relaxed."

Asked how he was adjusting to being back in top-level cricket, Gibbs said: "There isn't a player in the world who can take ten months off and then play just as well immediately. It takes a while to get your confidence back. The only way is to spend time in the middle."

As for the beleagured Sri Lankan captain, Sanath Jayasuriya, he was understandably morose.

"We are not doing well at the moment. It was a positive start, but we lost too many wickets too quickly. Both batters and bowlers are not up to scratch. It's hard to see where we can go now," he said.

The victory for South Africa means the Proteas have won ten one-day internationals in a row -- five against New Zealand, who'd come here directly from their ICC Trophy win in Nairobi) and now five against Sri Lanka. That equals the record set for South Africa when it was led by that now notorious ex-captain Hansie Cronje in 1994-5.

The South Africans can catch up to the West Indian winning run of eleven if they beat Sri Lanka at the Wanderers, Johannesburg, on Wednesday - a task which captain Shaun Pollock says he is confident of achieving.

The next target would be Australia's current one-day consecutive run of 13 - though purists would disqualify that as a record because there was one match in the middle of that run which was not completed due to the weather.

There is no doubt that today there are only two sides able to claim the title of the best one-day team - the Aussies and the South Africans. They both possess that streak of ruthlessness that makes them just love winning again and again and again.

Unless Mr Sanjeev Chawla has had any influence (perish the thought), you can be sure that no money will be placed on Sri Lanka to win the remaining one-dayer and the final Test-match.

Mail Cricket Editor