CAPE TOWN – This was the type of contest the masses have called for the entire summer. It might not have been the most clinical from either team, but at least both teams played a full part in a thoroughly entertaining – if rather chilly – evening at Newlands.
No sooner had South Africa posted 367/5 – the highest ODI total in the grand old ground’s history – did Sri Lanka respond with 327 for a combined match aggregate of 694 runs.
It was only possible due to two supremely magnificent innings from Faf du Plessis and Upul Tharanga. The former played the ODI innings of his life and was extremely unlucky to miss out on surpassing Gary Kirsten’s all-time highest South African ODI score of 188 not out against the United Arab Emirates in Rawalpindi in the 1996 World Cup by just three runs.
It was an exemplary innings from Du Plessis, who at no point did he appear to be slogging. It was simply steady progress throughout with his first 50 runs coming off 46 balls, the second off 43 and third off 40 balls.
There were times when Du Plessis used his power to clear the boundary like when he muscled a six straight over the bowler’s head, but there were also moments of finesse like when he executed the scoop over fine leg with precision.
Ultimately is was fatigue led to his demise when he went in search of the boundary that would have taken him past Kirsten, but the arms were too weary at that stage and he held out to long-on with four balls remaining in the innings.
Sri Lanka needed an innings of equal substance if were to even come close to chasing down the record total. Considering the tourists batting woes the entire summer – Niroshan Dikwella’s 74 at the Wanderers in the last match was the highest across formats previously – it had to be a senior player that needed to take the responsibility.
Step up captain Tharanga. The Sri Lankan skipper launched a vicious assault on the South African opening bowlers, forcing his counterpart De Villiers to haul off Dwaine Pretorius after just one over and introduce the part-time spin of JP Duminy.
This too proved a calamitous decision with Duminy being belted for 12 runs in his solitary over before too was yanked out of the attack. With Tharanga having an able partner in free-swinging Dikwella, the Sri Lankans raced out of the blocks to 100 without loss in only 10 overs.
And even when South Africa finally managed the breakthrough when Dikwella was caught on the square-leg boundary off Pretorius, who came back strongly in his second spell from the Wynberg End, Tharanga kept going strongly at the other end.
At no point did it seem like he too was taking any undue risks, but was simply striking the ball sweetly like when he went down on bended knee to send Tabraiz Shamsi deep into the Railway Stand. He was equally comfortable going over the inner ring on the off side.
The task of completing the highest run chase at Newlands was always going be too tall an order though. When South Africa finally starting holding on their catches – they again dropped a couple of straightforward chances – the pressure and escalating run-rate was simply too much when Wayne Parnell had Tharanga caught point by JP Duminy.
There were contributions from Sandan Weerakkody (58 off 51 balls) and Asela Guraratne (38 off 31 balls), but it was the home side that held their nerve through Parnell, Kagiso Rabada and Imran Tahir who all came back strongly in their second spells.
Sri Lanka finally managed to get off the canvas last night but ultimately it was still South Africa who landed the heavier punches to now set up the opportunity of a consecutive 5-0 ODI whitewash at Centurion on Friday.