Amla and De Kock dominate Sri Lanka

Sport Desk: Hashim Amla and Quinton de Kock provided the backbone to another dominant batting display by South Africa in the final Momentum One-Day International against Sri Lanka on Friday afternoon.

Already 4-0 up in the series, South Africa continued to assert their superiority over the islanders on a pitch that initially looked good for batting but which appeared to get gradually slower, possibly as a result of the balls getting softer.

Sri Lankan captain Upul Tharanga backed this venue’s reputation as a good one on which to chase, choosing to field first after winning the toss.

Also in his mind would have been his side’s gutsy effort in the previous match in Cape Town on Tuesday, when he made a wonderful hundred pushing Sri Lanka within 40 runs of the Proteas 367.

While De Kock and Amla were together on Friday it certainly looked as if South Africa would surpass that mammoth score set at Newlands when Faf du Plessis made a career best 185.

Both openers looked in excellent touch taking advantage of the hard new ball, coming onto the bat and the width on offer from the Sri Lankan bowlers which made scoring easy.

Amla was initially the aggressor going to 20 with five consecutive boundaries all through the off-side – a mixture of delicious drives and devastating cuts.

Once De Kock had settled he joined in the fun, with some lovely shots behind square on the leg-side and plenty in the midwicket region too finishing off those shots with some lavish flourishes of his blade.

Despite the muggy conditions he barely broke sweat in getting to 50, but at the other end his fellow opener was starting to get bogged down as the Sri Lankans mixed up pace and length.

Their bowlers built pressure on Amla, but Sri Lanka’s fielders failed to take advantage when that pressure created chances.

The first of those was extremely difficult with Kusal Mendis jumping high and stretching his arms fully above him but the ball flicked off his fingertips.

Amla was on 27 at the stage, and 11 runs later a much easier opportunity was missed by Tharanga at slip, when Amla got a thick edge off Dhananjaya de Silva but Sri Lanka’s captain wasn’t quick enough to snaffle the chance.

Amla chose to take it easy for a while thereafter, feeding De Kock the strike and he got South Africa’s scoring rate sailing at above seven an over as he closed in on a hundred.

That landmark eventually came off 80 balls, the 12th time he’s made an ODI century and the fourth one at what is now his homeground.

In trying to increase the scoring rate still further, he slashed at a short ball from Suranga Lakmal and was caught on the cover boundary for 109, off 87 balls, hitting 16 fours.

Faf du Plessis made a rapid 41 as part of a 63-run partnership with Amla for the second wicket and despite a few flashes, AB de Villiers could only score 14. JP Duminy too added very little and it was left to Farhaan Behardien to provide Amla with some support to finish off the innings.

Having struggled to get to his hundred – his 24th, tying De Villiers for the most by a South African in ODIs – Amla suddenly opened his shoulders and played some gloriously aggressive shots as the home team surged past 300.

Amla deposited a pair of sixes into the grandstand in the 47th over off Lahiru Madushanka – two of the biggest blows of his international career. He went from 100 to 150 off just 20 balls, hitting two fours and fives sixes in that period. He was eventually caught on the deep cover boundary for 154 (134b, 15x4, 5x6) the second highest score of his career.

Behardien hammered 32 off 20 balls as South Africa notched up the second highest ODI total ever at this ground, falling just eight runs short of the 392 they scored here against Pakistan 10 seasons ago.

Lakmal with 3/71 was the most successful of the Sri Lankan bowlers, but on an afternoon when they all took punishment leg-spinner Jeff Vandersay’s 1/61 was a stand-out performance.

Source: Agencies

 

risingbd/Dhaka/Feb 10, 2017/A K Azad