South Africa's Makhaya Ntini (right) celebrates with captain Graeme Smith after taking the wicket of Sri Lanka's Upul Tharanga during their match in the ICC Champions Trophy tournament in Ahmedabad yesterday. - Reuters
AHMEDABAD, India (AP):
FAST BOWLER Shaun Pollock's superb swing bowling crafted South Africa's emphatic 78-run win over Sri Lanka yesterday in a crucial Group B match of the ICC Champions Trophy tournament.
Pollock took two wickets for 21 runs in an unchanged 10-over spell then brought about a vital run out of Mahela Jayawardene as Sri Lanka were bowled out for 141 in 39.1 overs while chasing South Africa's 219 for nine off 50 overs.
South Africa lost their opening Group A match against New Zealand, but now are back in contention for a place in the semi-finals with their last group game against Pakistan scheduled for Friday at Mohali.
Sri Lanka also lost their opening game - a four-wicket defeat to Pakistan - and finished their group campaign with two points after defeating New Zealand. The top two teams from the group advance to the semi-finals and all four teams are still in contention.
"Since Pollock was on a roll and he managed to get the breakthroughs, we thought of using him at one stretch," South African captain Graeme Smith said. "The first 20 overs did the trick. Especially Pollock and Ntini's opening spells brought us back into the match."
Early blows
Sri Lanka could not recover from Pollock's early blows after the experienced paceman trapped Sanath Jayasuriya (three) lbw, then had Kumar Sangakkara caught behind for nought.
Upul Tharanga - the leading scorer in this biennial tournament - could not capitalise on a chance when Jacques Kallis dropped the left-hander on four as he edged Makhaya Ntini after scoring seven more runs.
Sri Lanka further slipped to 34-4 in the 14th over when Marvan Atapattu (two) couldn't offer a stroke to Andre Nel's sharp delivery which came back in and hit the top of the stumps.
Jaywardene (36) put on 44 runs with Tillakaratne Dilshan before Pollock's sharp diving throw from mid on ended Jayawardene's resistance. Dilshan was the joint top-scorer with 36 before he became one of Andre Nel's (3-41) three victims.
"My dismissal was the turning point because I was trying to build up a partnership with Dilshan, but once I was out it was an uphill task and we kept losing wickets regularly," Jayawardene said.
Earlier, Lasith Malinga took three late wickets to finish with four for 53, but it was Chaminda Vaas who did the early damage after captain Jayawardene won the toss and elected to bowl.
In a brilliant display of left-arm swing bowling, Vaas (2-16) reached his quota of 10 overs at a stretch, claiming the wickets of Smith (10) and Boeta Dippenaar (three).
A rapid 42-run partnership between Robin Peterson (22) and Pollock (21 not out) took South Africa beyond the 200-mark at the end, after they stuttered at 176 for seven in the 46th over.
Peterson took four boundaries and hit a six in the penultimate over - bowled by Farveez Maharoof - while Pollock lofted Malinga for a straight six in the last.
Sri Lanka captain Jaywardene's decision to bowl first paid off as Vaas struck twice. In between these jolts Herschelle Gibbs (16) struck three boundaries but Malinga found a thin edge that left South Africa reeling at 30-3 in the ninth over.
Experienced Kallis and A.B. de Villiers (54) made a slow recovery with an 80-run partnership off 137 balls and found it difficult to hit boundaries once Sri Lankan spinners came onto bowl.
Kallis, who made 43 off 71 balls, sprained his ankle and was finally beaten by Jayasuriya's well flighted delivery and was stumped in the 32nd over. Fast bowler Maharoof dropped a difficult catch when De Villiers was on 40 before the right-hander went on to complete his second half century in limited-overs internationals.
However, De Villiers lasted only two more deliveries when Maharoof made amends with a well judged low catch at long off in Muttiah Muratlitharan's next over.
