Mathews salvos Sri Lanka to victory after Sandakan strikes

Sri Lanka Skipper Angelo Mathews did fire the salvos in a typical captain’s knock of an unbeaten half century in even time in a characteristic mixture of the David and Goliath type of restraint coupled with aggression for Sri Lanka to break their barren run at long last by a 3-wicket T20 triumph over South Africa in the second and final match at Johannesburg to square the 2-match affair. In an ideally Sunday parade like show of muscle, Mathews salvaged the island nation’s dented image in the ongoing tour in a crispy knock that contained three lusty shots over the ropes and a boundary in 63 minutes with his strike rate soaring to 108.00.

If Skipper Angelo Mathews fittingly played the pivotal anchoring role to pull Sri Lanka out of a rut and another embarrassing defeat from a shaky 35 for 3 to reach the victory post with a defining unbeaten half century, it was the wily left arm wrist spinner Lakshan Sandakan who turned a dream debut in to putting his country on course with anexemplary 4 wickets for 23 runs. That was when he came in to the attack as the fifth change bowler to unsettle the Proteas with two frontline wickets of opener H.G. Kuhn and No.4 batsman M. Mosehle in what was a remarkably inroads making turn around by the 25-year old find from Ragama who schooled at De Mazenod College, Kandana. Of course, there was the veteran exponent in the biff bang game Nuwan Kulasekera providing the necessary base accounting for opener J,T. Smuts for 2 b 2 wickets for before left arm medium fast bowler Isuru Udana accounted for 3 wickets.

Chasing 114 for victory, Sri Lanka looked like losing the plot when opener Dhanushka De Silva and No.3 batsman Kusal Mendis were out cheaply to make it 1 for 11 and 2 for 15, and when Niroshan Dickwella, who had gamely taken anchor right up to hold the fort for a plucky 22 departed to make it 3 for 35, South Africa sensed a chance of bleeding the Sri Lankans once again. That was when Mathews walked in to smother the calamity with his deputy Dinesh Chandimal proving to be an able ally taking the fight to the opposition in a productive 51-run alliance for the fourth wicket. When Chandimal lost his cool and opted for the impetuous nicking a delivery behind, it was left to Mathews to do the rest as Sri Lanka moved from 86 for 4 losing 3 more wickets like the sinking ship’s captain holding forth to the end. In the joy of victory, however, there was the bad news of Mathews of Mathews twisting his ankle.

Sri Lanka 119 for 7 (Mathews 54 n.o., Ngidi 4-16) beat South Africa 113 (Sandakan 4-23,Isuru  Udana 3-13).

By Srian Obeyesekere

-The opinions expressed here are the views of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of Sri Lanka Cricket-