3rd ODI: South Africa vs Sri Lanka (Winner: SA)

South Africa won by 4 runs (D/L) (Dominance : SA 45% \| SL 52% \| Equal 3%)
	Scorecard
Man of the Match: F du Plessis	Chevrolet Park, Bloemfontein (17 Jan 2012)

This was Sri Lanka’s last chance to keep the series alive after the first two defeats. They chose to bat first again and the openers didn’t let them down. Tharanga and Dilshan scored runs without taking too many risks and surprisingly it was Tharange who brought up his fifty while Dilshan was still reaching 30. But the stand was broken on 94 when Tharanga was out for 58. Dishan, Sangakkara and Chandimal continued the trend of getting starts but not converting them as they fell for 33, 38, and 36 respectively. A spate of run outs meant the innings never gained a momentum and it took a cameo by Kulasekara to drag them to a handy total of 266/9. Malinga had them down to 29/2 before Dilshan made it 52/3. Faf and Duminy took them past 100 before Duminy was run out with the score at 113. Faf raced past his fifty and looked like taking the match before another run out caught him short for 74. With the clouds looming on the horizon, AbD and Morkel picked up the scoring and that turned out to be the deciding factor as when the rains came pouring, SA were ahead by 4 runs by D/L calculations and hence the winners.

1st Innings (Sri Lanka) - 50 overs Maximum

10 overs: SL 41/0

SL 40%

Looking to keep the series alive, Sri Lankan

openers put a price on their wickets but scored just 41 runs in the first 10 overs. The slow run rate caused Sri Lanka’s COW to dip by 8% to 40%.

25 overs: SL 130/2

SL 49%

Tharanga picked up scoring as he raced past

Dilshan to notch up his fifty but they both fell within 4 balls as Sri Lanka scored 89 runs in this session. Their COW went up by 9% to 49%.

40 overs: SL 210/5

SL 53%

Sri Lankan middle order got the starts but

didn’t go on to convert them in to a big score but Sri Lanka still managed to score 80 runs. This session saw their COW jump up by 4% to 53%.

50 overs: SL 266/9

SL 54%

Sri Lanka looked set for a 275+ score but

barring Kulasekara no one accelerated. Still 56 runs were scored for the loss of 4 wickets as SL’s COW nudged up by 1% to 54%.

2nd Innings (South Africa : Target 267) - 50 overs Maximum

10 overs: SA 41/2	SA 31%	South Africa’s opening woes continued
		as they lost Smith and Ingram early and scored just 41 runs in this period. This saw their COW drop drastically as it dropped 15% to 31%.
25 overs: SA 119/4	SA 51%	Petersen fell right after and just when
		Faf and JP looked like bailing them out, JP was run out. But they managed to put up 70 runs in this period increasing their COW by 20% to 51%.
34 overs: SA 179/5	SA 100%	Worrying about the clouds, Faf and AbD
		accelerated scoring and while Faf fell after his fifty, AbD and Morkel continued scoring fast and they did just enough to be ahead by 4 runs to clinch the match when rains came down.

3rd ODI: South Africa vs Sri Lanka (Winner: SA)

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