South Africa win Quadrangular

LAHORE, Nov 8: A thoroughly professional South Africa ultimately put an end to the dream run of the World Cup champions Sri Lanka by handin...

LAHORE, Nov 8: A thoroughly professional South Africa ultimately put an end to the dream run of the World Cup champions Sri Lanka by handing them their second successive defeat to lift the Quadrangular cricket tournament at the floodlit Gaddafi Stadium, here, this evening.

The South Africans, propelled by a brilliant 99 from Lance Kluesner, emerged victorious by four wickets in a low scoring final match played under light drizzle for most of the their innings.

Put into bat, the Sri Lankans, could muster only 209 for the loss seven wickets in 50 overs.

But skipper Arjuna Ranatunga8217;s men never gave up the fight and made the South African fight for every run. They could have even come up with some surprise but for the brilliant knock of 99 by Klusener, who was rightly adjudged the man-of-the-match.

After losing four wickets for 110 runs, the South Africans were under severe pressure. But Klusener teamed up with skipper Hansie Cronje for a 78-run fifth wicket partnership to put things beyond doubt.

Cronje was out for 34 runs, but by then the South African victory was almost assured and it looked certain that Klusener was going to take his team there with deserved century. But a sudden rush of blood deprived him of a historic century when he unnecessarily tried to pull Sanjeeva de Silva and gave a simple return catch. His 99 came in only 96 balls with the help of 11 fours and two sixes.

The Lankans were not in their elements as none of their top order batsmen could come up with a decent score which could help them post a challenging total with skipper Ranatunga topscoring with 32.

SCOREBOARD

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SRI LANKA:Sanath Jayasuriya c Symcox b de Villiers 14, Maravan Atapattu c Cronje b Klusener 22, Roshan Mahanama c Hudson b Donald 26, Aravinda de Silva c Klusener b Donald 24, Arjuna Ranatunga c Klusener b Pollock 32, Hashan Tillekeratne c Richardson b Pollock 28, Lanka de Silva c Richardson b Pollock 1, Kumara Dharmasena not out 24, Chaminda Vaas not out 18. Extras lb-8, w-11, nb-1: 20 Total for seven wickets: 209

FOW: 1-29, 2-66, 3-95, 4-101, 5-155, 6-157, 7-173.

Bowling: Pollock 10-0-42-3 w-2, De Villiers 8-1-28-1 w-1, Donald 10-0-46-2 w-1, Klusener 7-0-29-1 nb-1, w-5, Symcox 10-0-37-0 w-2, Cronje 5-0-19-0

SOUTH AFRICA: Andrew Hudson lbw Vaas 11, Gary Kirsten run out 7, Lance Klusener c amp; b Sajeewa de Silva 99, Pat Symcox b Sajeewa de Silva 15, Darryl Cullinan st Lanka de Silva b Aravinda de Silva 20, Hansie Cronje c Tillekeratne b Dharmasenna 33, Jonty Rhodes not out 5, Shaun Pollock not out 10. Extras w-3, nb-7: 10. Total for six wickets, in 40.4 overs: 210

FOW: 1-18, 2-40, 3-71, 4-109, 5-188, 6-197

Bowling: Vaas 6-1-34-1, Sajeewa de Silva 6-0-48-2, Muralitharan 10-0-34-0, Dharmasenna 8.4-0-47-1, Aravinda de Silva 5-0-25-1, Jayasuriya 5-0-22-0

Result: South Africa won by four wickets

Man of the match: Lance Klusener