Story ICC Battle For Supremacy - Its Fifty-Fifty! | PAK v ENG | ENG Innings

[Aditya]

South Africa have some really good bowlers in their side and it wont be easy for Sri Lanka to chase this total.

Great update there, Riz.

 

[surendar]

Isn't that Kulasekera a top class bowler? Considering the bowling efforts from other bowlers, this guy's bowling has costed more for Lanka now. Excellent work with the updates. Nice to know that, this story has turned out to be a combined one once again

 

[Meet]

Damn
missed it
You have presented the match really well.KIU.
And as said by me earlier that this match is in the hand of Africans and they did it in the end.

 

[riz7khan12]

ICC Battle for Supremacy​

Sri Lanka v South Africa
Match Two, Colombo

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: Welcome Back to this Star Cricket presentation, Battle Off the Field hosted by none other than myself. Were in the mid-innings break here and what a game so far! Wouldnt you agree Marvin?​

: Oh definitely, although Sri Lanka should be favourites to win this game, rather than the other way round.​

: Rightly so Marvin, Sangakkara blew his teams momentum apart everytime he persisted with Mahela, I must say. His figures show that, the batsmen knew that he was bowling absolute garbage at times at one end so they played defensively towards the other bowlers. They tagged him as the Pressure Release Button. So in the last 10 overs they were able to score at 8.8 runs per over as by now the batsmen were well set which allowed them to score 277 with relative ease.​

: Well we were hyping up how important spin was going to be in this encounter and well... Sangakkara didnt get caught up in it. He reluctantly gave Mendis just the one over and that too in the batting powerplay while Mahela bowled the full quota with 98 runs coming off his spell.​

: Another setback for the lions was their fielding, whether they were easy or hard chances most were dropped and that just comes down to not practicing hard enough Im afraid.​

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: As you can see, the ones that involved AB were pretty simple catches made to look hard because they didnt attack the ball and had to dive in the end. If one of them had been taken South Africa wouldve been in dire straits.

: The Boucher & and Steyn dropped chances were a bit harder one the fielder had to look over his shoulders while running forward and the other one the keeper needed to be more aware which he wasnt.

: Im sure this was their wake-up call and theyll be back on the field during training, practicing their fielding.

: Lets hope their fielding does improve as we all know catches win matches! Right lets focus on the South African batting now, JP Duminy what a innings he played!

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: Yes he did play well, he played most of his shots through that square leg area and he was rewarded with success. His manipulation of the line and length of the bowling was also excellent, which meant that he was so successful in scoring quick runs.​

: His innings was really important as he played according to the situation which showed he has great temperament to go with his unique technique. But lets not forget that blistering knock from Morkel who made sure South Africa scored 270+ on a low and slow pitch.​

: He didnt need any time to get his eye in thats for sure! He was taking on Murali and Mathews with relative ease compared with how the other batsmen struggled which is good to see. As an in-form Morkel with the bat will win games for South Africa and will allow them to play a extra bowler if needed.​

: We are running out of time here so thanks to Marvin for coming on the show today and well talk to you after the game ends. Sri Lanka will be raring to go and score aggressively especially with their destructive opening pair. We leave you with the confirmed scorecard of the first innings.
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[Roofrom50]

If it wasn't for Duminy's innings, the South African's would be way out of this match. Instead, it's a close contested game, and i look forward to the next update. Keep up the good work mate.

 

[surendar]

lol, dropping 4 catches is bit too much for any side. This might make a big difference in the end as SA team, in general, does this fielding part exceptionally well.

 

[Varun]

Mathews and Murali sustained Sri Lanka. And Jayawardene sustained South Africa, poor display of captaincy by Sangakkara by playing Jayawardene 10 overs, just look at the run he conceded. Obviously, Mendis would have gone lesser than that.

 

[riz7khan12]

ICC Battle For Supremacy
Sri Lanka v South Africa
Match Two, Colombo​

Counter-Attacking at its Best!​

Dilshan & Jayasuriya came out with positive intent, unfortunately for Dilshan he was out in the first over of the innings for a duck. He played wonderful cover drive off Steyn?s bowling, unfortunately for him he hit slightly in the air and de Villiers took a beautiful catch diving to his left. Steyn couldn?t believe his luck, South Africa had got the early breakthrough and that too of the inform Dilshan.​

In came their captain, Kumar Sangakkara. He looked threatening at first until he too perished trying to drive at a channel ball. Although this time Boucher was the one who took a stunning catch diving to where 2nd Slip would stand. It would seem that he was beaten for pace there. Sri Lanka are in all sorts of trouble now with the scoreboard reading 20/2.​

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We can already see the standards of fielding are much better compared to those of the lions, and as a result the proteas have taken two early wickets of both the inform batsmen. Coupled with the wickets they?ve also stopped numerous singles turning into two?s and two?s turning into three?s.​

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With Dilshan & Sangakkara back in the shed, it was up to the experienced duo of Jayasuriya and Jayawardene to get things back on track. However it wasn?t to be, Jayasuriya succumbed to a half tracker on leg stump that deserved to be smashed was six but all he could do is sky it straight to Steyn at square leg. Parnell who was Steyn?s opening partner picked up his first wicket and Sri Lanka now were 23/3.​

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Things looked all but over for the hosts until Samaraweera the man in form decided to show the world he can play aggressively. He took a few balls to get going but after that he was smashing the opening duo of Steyn and Parnell with ease. This prompted Smith to make a bowling change and bring the Morkel brothers in for Parnell & Steyn but this didn?t help as both of them got hammered for ten and eight runs respectively of their overs. ​

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So a mixed opening session for both the teams, South Africa will be pleased they picked up the three quick wickets and Sri Lanka will be pleased that Samaraweera is making sure that they keep up with the required run-rate. From here it can go either way, if South Africa pick up another wicket that will leave too much for the lower order and they?ll be in a firm position for victory. If Samaraweera can continue in the same fashion and score a quick 60-70 then Sri Lanka can launch on the back of Kapugedera & Mathews. ​

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[Meet]

Brilliant update as always riz.They were in complete trouble when they lost those 3 wickets in a very quick time.But just than Samarweera played pretty well, and tried to take the game away from the Proteas.Now these partnership will be crucial for both proteas and lankans.If these both gets going, it will directly put pressure on proteas, but if they get on of them soon it will go other way round.For me proteas are the favorites ATM.

 

[Roofrom50]

That's some great bowling from South Africa. 3 early wickets made them look dangerous as the game looked to get away from Sri Lanka. But a fighting knock from Samaraweera has put the game back onto level terms i reckon.

Should be a interesting finish, but i'll wait till the 20th over before i can decide a winner here.
Wonderful update mate, keep up the good work

 

[Gaurav_7]

That is a fantastic update, Riz. Steyn showing why he's the number 1 bowler and SA's fielding is always superb. I don't think Lankans can get there with three early blows unless Jaya has some other ideas.

 

[AkshayS]

SL need some stability there, Samaraveera needs to play a big innings, probably 100+ to take SL to a decent score.

A brilliant update Riz, loved your videos. Couldn't follow this story for sometime but now I'm back without missing much.

 

[CG123]

SL are in real trouble here, Samaraweera really has to push on towards a century.

Steyn's yet to really do much in ODI cricket (average 31, E/R 5.4), so it'll be good to see him finally convert his status as the best test bowler into the 50 over game.

 

[AbhishekS]

Expecting a ton from Mahela with good support by Samarweera.

 

[riz7khan12]

ICC Battle For Supremacy
Sri Lanka v South Africa
Match Two, Colombo​

Another One Bites the Dust!​

With Sri Lanka in the position they were in, it was crucial that they build a solid partnership between this pair of Jayawardene and Samaraweera. Unfortunately the aggressive Samaraweera was given out LBW on a 50/50 decision. Although Hawk-eye showed that the ball was hitting the stumps, their must’ve been doubt in the umpire’s mind as he was more than 2 metres outside his crease when the ball struck him. ​

The scoreboard read 54/4 and Sri Lanka were in real trouble. Morne Morkel was proving to be a tough challenge as the batsmen were finding it tough to combat his short ball theory which eventually was successful. He bounced out Kapugedara who tried scooping a short ball over the slips but instead just guided it down to the keeper. After that it all went downhill the composed Mahela lost his concentration for just a second and paid the price, he drove loosely outside off and was caught by de Villiers at point around knee high. As you can see below the batsmen had no clue on how to score of these deliveries. ​

Sri Lanka were down and out at this stage, only one batsman made more than 20 runs and it would require a miracle from Mathews and Kulasekara if the lions were to pull off an upset. Mathews looked good from the first ball he faced; he was able to put the loose balls away from both the spin and fast bowlers. Soon Kulasekara joined in the party, smashing the ball through the gap in the covers for four a couple of times.​

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As its been with the Sri Lankan innings, as soon as a partnership develops the Proteans take a wicket, only this time the wicket fell as a fault of the batsmen. Miscommunication between them resulted in Mathews getting run-out at the non-strikers end as Kulasekara pushed for two where there really wasn’t one.​

And with that wicket the chances of an Sri Lankan victory have been buried, with Malinga at the crease South Africa have reached the tail and its only a matter of time before it’s all over. From Sri Lanka’s point of view it’s imperative that they remain at the crease for as long as possible so that their net run-rate doesn’t get out of control later on and that they can still salvage some pride from this encounter.​

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