.DALLAS (USA) : June 4 ,2024 : South Africa and Sri Lankan batsmen have set a new record by batting slowly in the T20 World Cup. In the Group D match. South Africa defeated Sri Lanka by 6 wickets. It was impossible for the batsmen to bat on a tough bowler-friendly wicket in New York, where the African team also lost 4 wickets chasing the target after the Sri Lankan team was bowled out for 77 runs. In the match, the batsmen of both the teams showed slow batting where Sri Lankan players scored 77 runs off 115 balls, while South Africa also had to resort to 98 balls to achieve the target. In the match, the players of both the teams played record dot balls and created a new world record of the T20 World Cup. The two teams faced a total of 214 balls and played 127 dot balls, which is a world record in the T20 World Cup.
The previous highest was 123 dot balls played in the 2007 T20 World Cup match between South Africa and India. The highest number of dot balls bowled in T20 Internationals was 148 in a match between Ireland and Kenya in 2008.
South Africa started the World Cup 2024 successfully by defeating Sri Lanka thanks to the excellent performance of the bowlers. In the Group D match, Sri Lanka won the toss and elected to bat first, which proved disastrous.
Sri Lanka suffered their first loss when Patham Nissanka walked out in the third over of the innings after scoring just three runs. Kaushal Mendis and Kamindu Mendis had taken the score to 31 when the South African captain introduced Enrich Nokia and Keship Maharaj from the bowling end, who destroyed the Sri Lankan batting line in a few overs. With Nokia running Kamindu Mendes for 31, in the next over, Maharaj took two catches and finished the work of skipper Vinandu Hasaranga as well as Sidira Samara Wickrama, both of whom failed to open the account.
Kagiso Rabada takes two wickets – Photo: AFP
The Sri Lankan team was not even able to recover from this loss as Nokia took the valuable wicket of Kaushal Mendes in the next over and thus at the end of 10 overs the Sri Lankan team had lost five wickets for 40 runs. The failure of the batting line of the Sri Lankan team can be estimated from the fact that they could hit only fours till 12 overs and in the same over Nokia also got the third wicket while chasing another. After the fall of 6 wickets for 45 runs, Dasan Shanaka came in to support the experienced Angelo Mathews and both hit a couple of sixes to take the score to 68 but Kagiso Rabada scattered Shanaka’s wickets to give his team their seventh win. Sri Lanka’s hopes of reaching the 100 mark were dashed when Nokia finished Mathews’ 16 in the fourth over. The entire Sri Lankan team collapsed for just 77 runs on the last ball of the 20th over and eight of its players could not even get into double figures. The South African bowlers put up a brilliant display of nippy bowling which can be gauged from the fact that Nokia and Otniel Baartman conceded 7 and 9 runs respectively in their quota of four overs. On behalf of the Proteas, Nokia took four wickets for 7 runs, Maharaj and Rabada took two wickets each while Bartman took one wicket. Chasing the target, the South African batsmen also faced difficulties in scoring runs on a difficult wicket. The score had just reached 23 when Dasan Shanaka ended skipper Aiden Markram’s innings to give his team their second win. Sri Lanka had a chance to take another wicket in the same over but Kaushal Mendes could not catch South African batsman Tristan Stubbs in the slip. Stubbs seized the opportunity and combined with Quinton de Kock to complete the team’s half-century, but the veteran wicketkeeper-batsman’s 20-run innings came to an end on a total of 51. Stubbs’ score of 13 runs increased the score by 7 runs, but David Miller and Henry Claeson steered their side to victory. South Africa reached the target with 22 balls to spare and won the match by 6 wickets and also secured two valuable points. Enrich Nokia was adjudged Man of the Match for his brilliant batting.
