Proteas Bowling coach Eric Simons smiled big time last night as his unit ripped apart Sri Lanka in South Africa’s T20 World Cup opener in New York.
Simons warned the Lankans over the weekend that his bowlers were going to try and hunt down batsmen, instead of just trying to limit the damage.
And the Proteas’ bowling unit came out firing, as they beat the Lankans by six wickets in their Group D opener.
It was the Lankans that won the toss at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium and they almost instantly regretted their decision, as SA made an impact from the first ball to the last.
Ottneil Baartman (1/9) started the assault when he claimed the wicket of Pathum Nissanka with his first ball of the tournament for just three runs.
As per Simons’ warning, SA’s bowlers bowled to their field and forced Sri Lanka’s batsmen to pick out their catchers.
Pace ace Anrich Nortje was the gevaarlikste SA bowler, picking up career-best figures of 4/7 in his four overs, while Keshav Maharaj took 2/22 and Kagiso Rabada 2/21 as they bowled Sri Lanka out for a skamele 77 runs in 19.1 overs.
South Africa were never expected to struggle to get the winning runs in this match. But when they lost Reeza Hendricks (4) and captain Aiden Markram (12) early on, there would have been some kommer.
But Quinton de Kock (20) steadied the ship, as Heinrich Klaasen (19*) and David Miller (6*) took SA home to 80/4.