Wednesday, June 3, 2009

S Africa seal second warm-up win

ICC WORLD TWENTY20
Venues: Lord's, The Oval, Trent Bridge Date: 5-21 June
Coverage: Test Match Special commentary on BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra, Radio 4 LW, Red Button and online, with live text commentary on BBC Sport website & mobiles. Live TV coverage on Sky Sports with highlights on BBC

Herschelle Gibbs
Gibbs struck 48 to guide South Africa to victory

South Africa continued their impressive build-up to the World Twenty20 with a six-wicket win over Sri Lanka.

Superb South African bowling and fielding restricted Sri Lanka to just 109 for nine in their innings.

AB de Villiers (32) and Herschelle Gibbs (48) provided the platform for a South African victory at Lord's.

In the other early warm-up game, Scotland were beaten by seven wickets by England's opponents in Friday's curtain-raiser, the Netherlands.

At the Oval, Scotland made a bright start to their innings - they were 48 for one after seven overs - but were unable to maintain the momentum.

Kyle Coetzer looked in good form at the crease, making 39 from 28 balls, but struggled to find a good batting partner with Fraser Watts the only other man to make 20.

Netherlands' opening bowler Dirk Nannes bowled 16 dot balls in his four overs, providing the platform for Edgar Schiferli (three for 33), Pieter Seelaar (three for 25) and Mudassar Bukhari (two for 27) to limit Scotland to 128 for nine.

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After the early loss of Darren Reekers, Alexei Kervezee and Bas Zuiderent quickly regained the initiative for the Netherlands, bringing them to within 18 runs of victory with four overs remaining.

The wicket of Kervezee (for 62) followed quickly by Zuiderent (for 46), gave Scotland hope but Daan van Bunge struck a victory-sealing boundary with half an over to go.

Sri Lanka were unconvincing in Tuesday's four-wicket victory over Bangladesh and were made to look distinctly ordinary by an excellent South Africa, who fully justified their tag as one of the favourites for the upcoming tournament.

Dale Steyn led the initial destruction of the Sri Lankan order, claiming two early wickets before Gibbs ran out Jehan Mubarak to leave them in disarray at 16 for three.

Any momentum Sri Lanka hoped to build following these early blows were scuppered by the regular surrendering of wickets as they stumbled to 44 for seven; with only three boundaries in a score of 17 from Kumar Sangakkara worthy of note.

Kevin MacLeod
Scotland's Kevin MacLeod is bowled for one

Late order runs, primarily from Angelo Mathews (28) and Nuwan Kulasekara (24 not out), enabled Sri Lanka to limp to 109 for nine.

The South African chase got off to a poor start with powerful duo Graeme Smith and Jacques Kallis falling cheaply in the first two overs.

De Villiers, so impressive in the recently concluded IPL, steadied the ship along with Gibbs but with only two boundaries in the first ten overs their progress was steady at best.

When Sri Lanka did finally hold a catch - Lasith Malinga holding onto a lofted drive from De Villiers at long on off the bowling of Isuru Udana - it was too late to rescue the game.

Malinga bowled Gibbs two short of his half-century, before JP Duminy struck a boundary to seal a comfortable six-wicket victory.

ะพ 8:10 AM

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