AB de Villiers’ dazzling captain’s knock took the game away from Sri Lanka

Tags: South Africa tour of Sri Lanka, 2014, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Abraham Benjamin de Villiers

Published on: Jul 13, 2014

When the Proteas embarked on their latest journey to Sri Lanka, they knew that they had a big task on hand, not only in the Test series that would begin soon, but also in the one-dayers, since they hadn’t won a one-day series in the island nation till then.

When the Proteas embarked on their latest journey to Sri Lanka, they knew that they had a big task on hand, not only in the Test series that would begin soon, but also in the one-dayers, since they hadn’t won a one-day series in the island nation till then. That has changed now following South Africa’s magnificent win in the third and deciding ODI of the series at Hambantota. Going into the match, the visitors had been comprehensively beaten in the previous encounter, but showed a lot of character to pick themselves up, and overcome the massive challenge of beating Sri Lanka at home.


It was South Africa’s batting that clearly won them the game and the series. Having decided to bat first in the decider, they got off to a wonderful start courtesy the in-form Hashim Amla and Quinton de Kock, who roared back to form with a magnificent ton. The duo set up a wonderful platform for South Africa, putting on 118 inside 22 overs. Knowing Amla’s hunger for runs, he would have been keen to get his third ton in the series, just like his partner de Kock did in the home series against India. The law of averages however caught up with Amla as he was dismissed two short of a half-century.


Thankfully for the visitors, de Kock carried on, and went on to complete his wonderful century. His knock was a high quality one, bejeweled with boundaries to all parts of the ground. 12 fours and 3 sixes are an indication of how good he was on the day. South Africa were already in a strong position when skipper de Villiers came out to bat. However, the attacking batsman delivered what can be described as the knockout punch. He just did not allow any of the bowlers to settle in, taking the game completely away from the Lankans. His strike rate of 152 clearly demonstrates his mastery over the hosts.


Once they had put up a huge score on board, South Africa only needed to bowl decently to clinch the game, and the series, which is exactly what they did. It was a good bowling effort all-round from the Proteas, with most of the bowlers chipping in with the wickets, as a result Dale Steyn’s off day did not have much of an impact on the state of the match. Ryan McLaren, once again flourished claiming three key wickets. He was well supported by Morne Morkel and JP Duminy, who chipped in with a couple of wickets each. Also, even though Imran Tahir claimed only one wicket, he maintained the pressure on Lanka with a tight spell.


The only cause of concern, if any, for the South Africans from the match as well as the series as a whole, was the non-performance of Jacques Kallis. The great all-rounder failed with the bat in all the three games. In fact, his tally in the series couldn’t even reach double figures. The fact that he couldn’t bowl made matters worse. It would be intriguing to see what call the selectors take on the legend.


--By A Cricket Analyst

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