Twitter Reactions: South Africa win by 40 runs in a run fest at Cape Town

In what was a nerve-wracking game at Cape Town, Sri Lanka came so near yet ended far from a possible victory. It was a sensational run-chase after a splendid start provided by the openers Niroshan Dickwella and Upul Tharanga, the other batsmen messed it up as South Africa managed to win by 40 runs to lead the series 4 nil and Sri Lanka now stare at a probable whitewash.

Earlier in the day, it was captain AB de Villiers who won the toss as the Proteas elected to bat first. It wasn’t the start quite desired as Hashim Amla was back into the pavilion by the end of the second over. Faf du Plessis played one of the most wonderful knocks ever as he scored 185 runs from just 141 balls. He missed out on a possible double century and also the all time highest score by a South African which is currently held by Gary Kirsten (188). His innings contained 13 boundaries and 3 maximums.

De Kock continued his fireworks from the other end as he managed to score a brilliant fifty. After he got out, it was AB de Villiers’ time to take over and thrash the hapless Sri Lankan bowling. In the end, Farhan Behardien provided the finishing touches as South Africa posted a mammoth total of 367/5 in their quota of 50 overs.

Quite surprisingly, Sri Lanka began their innings directly on the fifth gear thanks to some splendid start provided by the openers. With 203/1 in 27 overs, a victory was always in the cards for the visitors. However, a flurry of wickets lost shifted the momentum towards the Proteas. Imran Tahir bowled a brilliant spell to put Sri Lanka on the back foot.

Sandun Weerakkody who seemed the last glimmer of hope for Sri Lanka got out in the 45th over marking the final nail in the coffin for the visitors. Wayne Parnell went on to take 4 wickets as South Africa won the game by 40 runs.

Twitter was quite entertained with the interesting game on the cards at Newlands. In the first innings, it was Faf who stole the show with some magnificent batting. In the second innings, Tharanga was lauded for some fantastic batting. Here are some of the Twitter reactions that took place during the course of the game:

https://twitter.com/iqdefinesyou/status/829044160342614016

https://twitter.com/nibrazramzan/status/829035486945554434