Picture Credit: Twitter
The game between South Africa and Sri Lanka on Saturday was a roller-coaster ride as both the teams played beautifully at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium. Given that only one team between the two could have won the game, South Africa were the side who were able to fetch two valuable points, thanks to David Miller pyrotechnics in the final over. Meanwhile, the another performance that stole the show and kept Sri Lanka in the game was a Wanindu Hasaranga hat-trick.
The Sri Lankan leg-spinner started with the wicket of Aiden Markram on the final ball of the 15th over of the South African innings and came back in the 18th over to claim wickets of Temba Bavuma and Dwaine Pretorius in the first two deliveries to complete his hat-trick. With this he became only the third player in the history of T20 World Cup to achieve the feat. Australia’s Brett Lee was the first bowler to reach the milestone in 2007, while Ireland’s Curtis Campher repeated it in the ongoing edition.
Coming to the Sri Lanka vs South Africa game on Saturday, Hasaranga bowled a googly to Markram, who in a bid to create room for himself, let the ball come into him and disturb the stumps. Meanwhile, Bavuma tried to play a pull shot off Hasaranga and gave a catch to Pathum Nissanka at cow corner. New batter Pretorius also followed Bavuma to the dugout after failing to clear the long on and getting caught in the region by Bhanuka Rajapaksa.
Here is the video of the hattrick:
Miller and Rabada fire South Africa to nail-biting win over Sri Lanka
David Miller (23* off 13) struck back-to-back sixes to Lahiru Kumara in the final over as he and Rabada (13* off 7) took South Africa home in a nail-biting chase. The duo shared a 15-ball 34-run stand after captain Bavuma had top-scored with 46 for the side. Earlier, both Shamsi and Pretorius had returned identical figures of 3/17 to restrict Sri Lanka to 142/10 in 20 overs despite opener Pathum Nissanka's 72 off 58. Charith Asalanka (21 off 14) was the only other player to cross the 20-run mark for the side.