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Untitled Document
 South Africa sneak home despite Malinga hat-trick
29th Mar 2007 19:22 IST
Agencies
South Africa survived a sensational hat-trick by Sri Lankan pacer Lasith Malinga to sneak home for a nail-biting one-wicket victory in the World Cup Super Eight one-dayer at Georgetown in Guyana on Wednesday.
After restricting Sri Lanka to 209, South Africa were smelling victory at 206/5 when Malinga grabbed four wickets off successive deliveries to revive Sri Lanka's hopes of a miraculous win at the Providence Stadium.
Malinga dismissed Shaun Pollock (13) and Andrew Hall (0) off the fifth and sixth ball of the 45th over. The 23-year-old right-arm bowler with sling-shot action then had Jacques Kallis (86) and Makhaya Ntini (0) off the first two deliveries of the 47th over.
Chaminda Vaas then bowled a maiden over to keep the pressure on South Africa's last pair of Robin Peterson and Charl Langeveldt.
Malinga, bowling his last and the innings' 49th, almost had Peterson with a searing full length delivery but the outside edge went past the slip cordon to third man boundary, much to the relief of the South Africans.
The result not only gave valuable two points to South Africa, who advanced the second stage without any, but also saw them bag a cheque of USD 150,000 for winning the annual ICC ODI Team championship.
Malinga, with 4/54, became only the fifth bowler after Chetan Sharma, Saqlain Mushtaq, Chaminda Vaas and Brett Lee to take a hat-trick in World Cup history. He is also 24th on the all-time ODI hat-trick list but only the first to take four wickets off as many balls in World Cup.
South Africa made heavy weather of a modest target.
They were cruising at 160/2 after a 94-run partnership for the second wicket between captain Graeme Smith and deputy Kallis before Muttiah Muralitharan struck.
Muralitharan (3/34) had Smith stumped for 59, and then Herschelle Gibbs (31) and Mark Boucher (0) off consecutive balls as South Africa slid to 182/5.
Still, nothing seemed to go wrong as long as Kallis was at the crease.
Kallis, who played a composed knock, and Pollock took the team within touching distance of the target before the latter played inside the line of a slower one from Malinga.
Hall then checked his drive and popped a catch to short cover.
Malinga was ordinary with the new ball but he was reverse swinging the old one with devastating effect now.
When Kallis flashed at outside off stump to be caught behind in the bowler's next over, panic set in.
Malinga then yorked Ntini to revive the Lankan hopes.
But two runs were too less to defend and Sri Lanka paid the penalty for failing to apply themselves with the bat.
Their innings revolved around a record partnership between Tillakaratne Dilshan and Russel Arnold who put on 97 runs for the sixth wicket.
Their association, the best for Sri Lanka for the sixth wicket, lifted them from 98/5 in the 25th over but the last four wickets fell for one run, ruining their good work.
Dilshan made an uncharacteristically subdued 58 and Arnold played a similarly risk-free knock of 50.
Langeveldt was the most successful among South African bowlers with 5/39 while Ntini was also impeccable to return with figures of 2/26. |
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