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Gunawardene lays South Africa low

Roshan Paul

South Africa's hopes to make the final of the Singer Cup were dealt a severe blow as Sri Lanka, led by newcomer Avishka Gunawardene, soundly thrashed them by eight wickets with almost 23 overs to spare.

This result makes their final match against Pakistan a do-or-die affair, for their net run-rate has likely taken quite a beating in this match.

The match began in a humorous vein. At the toss, a grinning Match Referee John Rein said he would be tossing an "unbiased coin". Sri Lanka won the toss and fielded. At the toss, Shaun Pollock hinted that his team had a couple of game plans.

Plan A was immediately evident for Lance Klusener came out to open the batting with Gary Kirsten. However, he drove his first ball from Pramodya Wickremasinghe (who had replaced the rested Chaminda Vaas) straight to Atapattu at cover. Plan A was hopelessly bust.

Nuwan Zoysa then bowled Kirsten off his pads and South Africa were tottering at 4/2. Andrew Hall and Jacques Kallis decided to counter-attack. Unhesitatingly hitting the ball over the top, they succeeded at first. Kallis quickly ruined Wickremasinghe's dream comeback by first sweeping and then coming down the pitch and lofting him for two sixes in the same over. Things were beginning to look good when Hall (32, 34b, 5x4) played one shot too many and holed out to square leg of Dharmasena's first ball.

Cullinan and Rhodes, both of whom were run out, quickly followed him. Neither Pollock nor Boucher could read Upul Chandana's leg spin and South Africa were now 110/7 in the 28th over. The leg spinner, who destroyed South Africa in their previous encounter, ended with the very flattering figures of 1/20 in his ten overs.

Kallis and Nicky Boje then settled down to bat out the fifty overs without taking any risks. Slowly but surely they advanced the score along to 148 in the 45th over when Boje was stumped off Dharmasena. Kallis (83 n.o., 148b, 4x4, 2x6) then played a few big shots but, unfortunately, ran out of partners as his team was bowled out for 167. This time, Jayasuriya didn't make the mistake of bowling his medium pacers at the death and the spinners ran through the South African tail with ease.

Sri Lanka, and in particular, Avishka Gunawardene, then quite mercilessly murdered the South African attack. Even the miserly Pollock was not spared, though he did get Jayasuriya to hit one straight up in the air in the third over. From then on it was total carnage. Nantie Hayward, inexplicably retained in the team, went for 26 in his first two overs.

Gunawardene (87, 75b, 16x4) has looked good so far in the tournament without building on his starts. Today, he was unstoppable and, until he misread a delivery from Boje, threatened to win the match all on his own. However, his innings inspired Atapattu (44, 62b, 5x4) to take a few risks as well and the scoring rate was maintained even after he got out. Sri Lanka cantered home as early as the 28th over.

An excellent performance from Sri Lanka again but more than that, it was a very poor show from the Springboks. Bar the top three, their batting continues to be a problem with their famed depth not delivering the goods. Today, the bowling too looked substandard. On the field, they looked listless and dispirited and never likely to get the wickets they needed to put pressure on Sri Lanka.

With a crucial match against Pakistan tomorrow and a Test series ahead, Shaun Pollock and his team desperately need to pull up their socks if they are to compete.