The most intriguing moment of the Sri Lanka (SL) and South Africa (SA) match was when Hashim Amla was given a lbw out and he walked. Faf du Plessis insisted on a review and it showed that the ball would have missed the stumps. In those few seconds—almost a minute—as the third umpire looked at it, there was some thrill in the air. And the decision was reversed. Amla then had to return to play again. Technology had triumphed over cricket gallantry. Nothing else happened during the match that could be called exciting.
SL out of semis contention?
South Africa—playing for pride—plodded their way with an efficiency that was missing in each one of their previous matches. Beating SL by 9 wickets is only half the point. It took them 37.2 over only.
Both Amla (80) and Faf (96) were unbeaten with only 1 down. Lasith Malinga—the only SL player who seemed to have some intent—got that one. Otherwise, SA batted against a team which seemed reluctant to try much.
SL's semi chances have dimmed considerably as they will only make it if Pakistan and England both lose their matches and SL wins both of theirs. Tough ask, if you ask...
SL : How to implode
Dimuth Karunaratne went in the first ball. The next stand was a worthy 67 and both Kusal Perera and Avishka Fernando scored 30 each. However, that was the highest individual score. You do not win matches with 203 and a highest score that low. It was such mediocre innings that one did not know whether to feel sorry or laugh at how SL took the match. Dwaine Pretorius— with his 3 for 25—was the MOM.
Against England, SL's team looked so spirited. It was obvious in their fielding and run ups but against SA batting , they were going through the motions by the 15th over. They looked like losers and lost in the end, to make the point.
SA looks good, but when it doesn’t matter
This makes the SA innings such a mystery. They were generally playing like SL with an upgrade from their previous matches. However, having exited the semis chances sweepstake, they played relaxedly; even Amla—on a dry streak—scored 80, and Faf almost got a century. He missed because no runs were left to be made as they had reached the target.
So there was a pretty dull match with two dull teams, one a lame duck, and the other a duck that refused to quack – which made for some strange cricket. In the end, how they performed did not matter, and most importantly it seems, this did not matter to the playing sides. I hope it is more fun tomorrow.