South Africa vs Sri Lanka, 2019: 1st T20I – Statistical Highlights

After a disappointing ODI series, Sri Lanka nearly pulled one off against South Africa in the T20I series before going down in the Super Over. Sri Lanka were restricted to 134/7 in their 20 overs on what looked like a slow track. The visiting spinners had the hosts 52/3 by 10th over but Rassie van der Dussen and David Miller added 66 runs in only seven overs.

South Africa needed six runs from the last two overs but scored only five including a single on final delivery due to Niroshan Dickwella’s error which tied the game. Lasith Malinga conceded 14 runs in the Super Over as David Miller hit a six and four. Sri Lanka could only make five runs in the bowling of Imran Tahir and lost the game.

Here are all the major stats and numbers recorded during a thriller of a game in Cape Town:

A new keeper for Proteas:

1 – For the first time in his professional career, David Miller featured as a designated wicket-keeper. He has kept wickets on quite a few occasions including during the ODI series for a couple of overs in the past but never featured as a keeper-batsman.

3 – Only the 3rd time that Quinton de Kock played an International match as a specialist batsman. He played the 2013 Benoni ODI against Pakistan with AB de Villiers keeping the wickets and was a specialist batsman on his Test debut in the 2014 Port Elizabeth Test against Australia.

A captaincy spell from Malinga:

2/11 – Lasith Malinga’s bowling figures of 2/11 are the joint 2nd most economical 4-over figures for a pace bowler in a T20I while playing as a captain. Hong Kong’s Tanwir Afzal returned with 4-1-9-0 against Ireland in the 2015 Dublin T20I while Carlos Brathwaite recorded 2/11 in the 2018 Kolkata T20I against India.

This was the 3rd time Malinga conceded less than six an over from his four overs of a T20I while leading Sri Lanka; 2/19 and 2/16 against the Windies in successive matches during the 2015 home T20I series. No other Sri Lankan skipper conceded less than six runs an over from their four overs in a T20I.

Doing wonders at 39:

39y 357d – At the age of 39 years and 357 days, Imran Tahir is only the 3rd oldest cricketer to feature in a T20I for a full member nation. Brad Hogg (43y 45d) and Sanath Jayasuriya (41y 360d) were aged 41+ when they last featured in a T20I for Australia and Sri Lanka respectively.

A rare Super Over loss for Malinga and Perera:

1 – Lasith Malinga bowled the Super Over for Sri Lanka while Thisara Perera was one of the openers in the Super Over for the Lankans. This was the first time any team has lost a T20 Super Over where either Malinga featured or Perera batted.

Malinga bowled in two T20 Super Overs out of the three he featured in past conceding nine runs across those two games. Thisara, on the other hand, was a part of four T20 Super overs in the past out of which his teams won three of them where he batted and lost when he didn’t bat.

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