David Miller shone with gloves and bat as South Africa beat Sri Lanka on a Super Over in a dramatic first Twenty20 international at Newlands on Tuesday.
In theunaccustomed role of a wicket-keeper, Miller held a catch and made a stumpingas Sri Lanka were restricted to 134 for seven after being sent in.
Miller thenhit 41 off 23 balls but South Africa’s lower order collapsed as the home sidelost eight wickets and could only match Sri Lanka’s total.
Millerfollowed up with 13 runs as South Africa scored 14 off the Super Over, bowledby Sri Lankan captain Lasith Malinga.
Sri Lankacould only manage five runs off Imran Tahir’s over in reply.
“We didn’thandle it well with the bat in the last five or six overs but getting anotheropportunity in the Super Over I thought we handled it beautifully,” said SouthAfrican captain Faf du Plessis.
Miller washanded the wicketkeeping gloves in preparation for his likely role as Quintonde Kock’s back-up in the World Cup.
He caughtNiroshan Dickwella off Dale Steyn’s bowling off the second ball of the matchand made a stumping when Kamindu Mendis ran past an Imran Tahir googly. Mendistop-scored for Sri Lanka with 41.
South Africa looked set for a comfortable win when Miller and Rassie vander Dussen (34) put on 66 for the fourth wicket but both were out within threeballs before the rest of the batting crumbled.
Van der Dussenwas caught at fine leg off Malinga and two balls later man-of-the-match Millerwas run out. “It was unnecessary,” Miller admitted.
Malinga was superbin the closing overs, finishing with two for 11, while Isuru Udana bowled atight final over, conceding only four runs.
“T20 is a different game,” said Malinga, adding that the tactic of usingmainly spin bowlers worked, even though his team were not able to get acrossthe line.
“But still, Iam really happy with what we are doing,” he said.
Agencies