Sri Lanka Wins A Nail Biting Match Against South Africa
The 1st match of group 1 was played between Sri Lanka and South Africa in Chittagong. Sri Lanka won the toss and decided to bat first. The opening over brought 17 runs for the Lankans but it also took away the wicket of Dilshan in the very first ball he faced. Sri Lankan opener Perera made a cracking start and kept on scoring at a good pace. In the 5th over of the match Jayawardene too lost his wicket to Morkel. The wickets from one side kept tumbling but the runs kept coming for the Lankans. At the end of the 20th over Sri Lanka scored 165 runs. The Highest scorer from the team was Perera who scored 61 off 40 balls and Imran Tahir the young spinner was star of the bowling line up as he took 3 wickets and bowled economically.
South African chase was more of teamwork as the team scored at a controlled rate. As the team scored runs the wickets also kept tumbling down. Soon the target seemed to be achievable but then as the African lower order collapsed without contributing much to the cause and hence the Lankans won the game by 5 runs. Perera was awarded the man of the match award.