Dickwella, Prasanna take Sri Lanka to series win

Sri Lanka created history, defeating South Africa by five wickets with a ball to spare in the third and final Twenty20 International in Cape Town on Wednesday (January 25) to secure a 2-1 series victory. It was the first time Sri Lanka had won a series in any format in the country.

The architects of Sri Lanka’s successful chase of 170 is Niroshan Dickwella (68 in 51 balls), who shared a third-wicket stand of 71 with Dhananjaya de Silva, and Seekkuge Prasanna, who scored a career-best 37 not out off just 16 balls with three fours and three sixes to take the side across the line.

That spoilt AB de Villiers’s comeback to international cricket. He was back with a bang with 63 off 44 balls with two fours and three sixes, forging second-wicket partnership of 71 with Reeza Hendricks. However, he was dismissed by Nuwan Kulasekara at the start of the 18th over and that put paid to South Africa’s hopes of piling on the runs towards the end.

It was only due to some strong hitting by Mangaliso Mosehle in the final over, which added 21 runs to the total – including three sixes in four balls – that gave South Africa a fighting total in the end.

South Africa is unlucky to lose Lungi Ngidi after he had bowled only two of his four overs with a hip injury after he fell heavily on one of the side pitches. But it was the fielding that really let South Africa down.

The key moment came in Wayne Parnell’s second over when South Africa dropped a hat-trick of catches off the fourth, fifth and sixth balls of the over. De Silva was dropped on three and then Dickwella on 19 and again on 23. In the end, those chances made all the difference.

Dickwella finished the series as the only batsman on either side to score more than 100 runs in the series and he was deservedly named both Man of the Match and Man of the Series