One-off T20I: Sri Lanka beat South Africa by three wickets

After the Sri Lankan spinners, lead by Lakshan Sandakan’s (3/19) shot out South Africa for the lowest ever T20I score of 98, a returning Dinesh Chandimal 36* guided his team to victory with four overs to spare.

Sri Lanka beat South Africa by three wickets in the one-off T20I chasing down a paltry total of 99  at the R Premadasa Stadium, Colombo on Tuesday.

After the Sri Lankan spinners, lead by Lakshan Sandakan’s (3/19) shot out South Africa for the lowest ever T20I score of 98, a returning Dinesh Chandimal 36* guided his team to victory with four overs to spare.

Sri Lanka did not have a good start to the chase as Kagiso Rabada picked two key wickets in the first over of the chase in the form of openers Kusal Perera (3) and Kusal Mendis (1), but Dhananjaya de Silva and Chandimal combined for a stand of 53 runs for the third wicket to put Sri Lanka back on track.

Junior Dala and Tabraiz Shamsi scalped de Silva (31) and skipper Angelo Mathews (0) in consecutive overs  as Sri Lanka went on to lose five wickets for 40 runs. However, Sri Lanka managed to overhaul the target with help of Chandimal.

Earlier, electing to bat first, the visitors were bowled out in 16.4 overs – two runs less than their previous low score of 100 against Pakistan in 2013.

While wrist spinner Sandakan picked three, he was ably supported by fellow spinners de Silva and Akila Dananjaya who took two wickets each.

Sri Lanka swept the two-Test series but the Proteas returned to clinch the one-day internationals 3-2.

Brief Scores: Sri Lanka 99/7 (Dinesh Chandimal 36*: Junior Dala 2/26) beat South Africa 98 (Quinton de Kock 20; Lakshan Sandakan 3/19) by three wickets

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