3rd ODI - South Africa v Sri Lanka

South Africa get lucky with D/L as they have clinch the series 3-0

Du Plessis led the South African run chase with his fantastic knock of alomst a run a ball 72 before running himself out at a crucial juncture of the game

South Africa v Sri Lanka, 3rd ODI, Jan 17th, 

Chevrolet Park, Bloemfontein.

Upul Tharanga 58(65), Faf Du Plessis 72(74)
 

After winning the toss Sri Lanka started off in grand fashion with openers putting on over 50 runs for the first wicket, Tharnga after making a fine fifty perished to Peterson who bowled some tight lines, Dilshan struggled through out his knock and finally perished in a similar manner to his opening partner.  Sri Lanka had a dreadful day when it came to running between the wickets as both their starts Sangakkara and Jayawardene perished courtesy of run outs.

Nuwan Kulasekara was promoted ahead of Angelo Mathews who later came in and failed to make an impression, wickets kept tumbling at the other end, Chandimal played a descent hand once he perished it was down to Nuwan Kulasekara who played a fine knock of 40 from just 38 balls to steer Lanka to a respectable total of 266 which meant that the Proteas had a stiff target to chase.

Sri Lankans batted well in the patches to post competitive score of 266 against relatively weak South African team in absence of Amla and Kallis. Smith and Petersen opened the batting for South Africa. Smith looked watchful against Malinga and played out a maiden. Petersen at other end looked fluent and got off the mark off his very first delivery. Smith's was quickly dismissed by Malinga in his third over, cleaned up by a swinging yorker on middle stump. Ingram the next man in looked good, hitting two consecutive boundaries in very first over he faced. However, he was deceived by slow yorker from Malinga to get out.

Du Plesis and Petersen tried to stick in the middle and form a partnership, nudging and nurding around for singles and twos. Petersen was next man out LBW, trying to reverse sweep very first delivery he faced from Dilshan. Duminy was promoted up the order ahead of skipper AB de Villiers. He formed a good partnership with Faf du plesis to cross 100 run barrier for Proteas. du Plesis looked impressive running hard, converting couples into threes and singles into twos. Duminy played a patient knock until he fell victim of controversial decision from Billy doctrove the third umpire in a close run out call which brought surprise to everyone.

Midway through the innings, the match was poised on a fine balance. Faf du Plessis and AB tried to rebuild after a fine partnership between Faf and JP Duminy was broken through the controversial run-out. Just when they seemed to take the game away from Sri Lanka through some fine boundaries and quick running, Faf du Plessis was run out against the run of play. On hindsight, it seemed to be unnecessary, given that he was suffering from cramps and was literally struggling to reach the other end. AB de Villiers crunched some crisp boundaries to relieve the pressure. Rain came down, just when the match was hurtling towards a thrilling finish. Albie Morkel and AB de Villiers had added 32 runs by then, managing to stay ahead of the D/L par score by 4 runs.