SA v SL, 3rd T20I Review: Dickwella, Sandakan power Sri Lanka to historic series win

After a whitewash in the Test series, Sri Lanka has come back strongly and clinched the T20I series against the mighty Proteas by winning the 3rd and the final T20I by 5 wickets with a ball to spare. After losing the opening encounter it was a great comeback by the islanders to win the remaining two matches to clinch the series. South Africa rode on a beautiful half-century by comeback man AB de Villiers to post a more than competitive 169 on the board.

Sri Lanka began pretty well with opener Niroshan Dickwella striking the ball very well. He struck a beautiful half century and Seekkuge Prasanna played terrific innings in the dying moments of the match to clinch the nail-biting thriller for Sri Lanka. The series victory will surely boost their confidence after a morale-shattering whitewash in the Test matches.

South Africa captain Farhaan Behardien won the toss and opted to bat. The hosts began in an attacking note smashing boundaries on a consistent basis in the first powerplay. JJ Smuts struck a couple of boundaries in the first over to set things rolling for the Proteas. Reeza Hendricks added a couple more in the 2nd over followed by a dropped catch by Thikshila de Silva in the 3rd over. Smuts was eventually dismissed by leggie Seekkuge Prasanna in the 5th over.

Comeback man AB de Villiers came to the crease and after battling out the first few deliveries he looked in his old touch and took on the islanders with disdain. It didn’t look that the modern day master wasn’t in action for the last 8 months. De Villiers’ first boundary came in the 9th over of Prasanna and that was the beginning of much more. Mr. 360 struck left arm chinaman Lakshan Sandakan for a big six over the midwicket region.

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The party continued for de Villiers as he smashed another monstrous six in the very next over. Hendricks was dismissed by Sandakan in the 14th over followed by hard-hitter David Miller’s wicket in the very next over. De Villiers struck yet another six of Isuru Udana in the 17th over followed by captain Behardien’s wicket in the same over. De Villiers too fell in the very next over of Nuwan Kulasekara as the Proteas were placed at 135/5 at the end of the 17th over.

Mangaliso Mosehle struck three consecutive sixes of Isuru Udana in the last over of the innings to propel the score to 169 at the end of their allotted 20 overs.

Sri Lanka began pretty well with both southpaws Niroshan Dickwella and making a comeback in the team Upul Tharanga looked in good knick. Dickwella began with a boundary in the first over of Lungi Ngidi followed by a couple more by Upul Tharanga in the 2nd over Dane Paterson. Boundaries continued to flow as the islanders breezed their way to 36/0 at the end of 4 overs but tragedy struck in the first ball of the 5th over as Wayne Parnell bamboozled Upul Tharanga will a well-disguised slower delivery.

Stand-in-captain Dinesh Chandimal came into the middle but soon fell prey to a brilliant Imran Tahir. The leggie bamboozled him a brilliant googly which breached his defence and went on to disturb the timbers. With the score at 45/2, Dhananjaya de Silva joined Dickwella in the middle. DE Silva was not going for the extravagant shots and was rather giving the strike to Dickwella who was striking the ball really well. He executed a dillscoop to perfection which would have made Tillekaratne Dilshan proud.

The southpaw went on the rampage and struck boundaries at will. Phehlukwayo was struck for a hat-trick of boundaries by Dickwella in the 9th over followed by a four and six of JJ Smuts in the 14th over. He ticked along the scoreboard in the middle with the ones and twos. With the score at 116, Dickwella went for a slog sweep but couldn’t clear the deep boundary and was held out by the deep fielder.

Tahir added another in a matter of minutes by inviting Dhananjaya de Silva into a drive. He missed it completely and the rest was done by wicket-keeper Mosehle.

With 52 needed off the last four overs, the fortunes were titled in South Africa’s favour. Seekugge Prasanna changed the whole complexion of the match with some lusty blows of Wayne Parnell in the 17th over. He struck two gigantic sixes and a boundary to bring down the calculation to 34 required off the last 3. After a quite 18th over, Prasanna again upped the ante with a six and a four of Phehlukwayo in the 19th over to bring down the calculation to 11 of the final over.

Newcomer Paterson was given the final over. Gunaratne struck him for a paddle sweep boundary over the short fine-leg fielder followed by a couple of singles in the next two deliveries. On the 4th delivery, he top-edged a short of length delivery over the wicket-keeper’s head for a boundary. Thinking the match was over he took the stumps in delight only to realise that they were still a run away.

He did the formalities in the very next delivery by hitting past the 30-yard circle to close out an epic encounter as far as Sri Lanka is concerned. Winning a series in South Africa doesn’t come too often and the visitors should be proud of their performance and the character they have shown.

Brief Scores

South Africa 169/5 in 20 overs (AB de Villiers 63, Lakshan Sandakan 1/23)

Sri Lanka 170/5 in 19.5 overs (Niroshan Dickwella 68, Imran Tahir 3/18)

Sri Lanka won by 5 wickets (with 1 ball remaining)