SYDNEY: The choker tag no longer burdens A.B. de Villiers and South Africa after they ended a winless streak in the World Cup knockout matches with a nine-wicket quarter-final victory over Sri Lanka on Wednesday.

The tag became a source of frustration for the Proteas, who regularly fielded teams capable of winning the World Cup since rejoining the international arena at the 1992 tournament, but failed in five straight play-offs.

The win was set up by man-of-the-match Imran Tahir’s 4-26 and J.P. Duminy’s hat trick — the pair combined to take four wickets for two runs in nine balls as Sri Lanka crumbled to be all out for 133.

Quinton de Kock returned to form with an unbeaten 78 from 57 balls, lifting South Africa to 134-1 in 18 overs. Faf du Plessis was unbeaten on 21 at the end.

Hashim Amla (16) was the only wicket to fall, caught on the boundary off Lasith Malinga with the total at 40.

For Sri Lanka, champions in 1996 and runners-up at the last two World Cups, it was a disappointing end to the glittering limited-overs careers of veterans Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene.

“I’m relieved and I’m very, very happy we won,” de Villiers said. “In tournaments like this you’re always under pressure. ... We just showed everyone we can do it.”

Slow bowlers Duminy and Imran combined to ruin Sri Lanka’s innings after the pacemen dismissed the openers cheaply. Sri Lanka, after winning the toss and electing to bat, were out in 37.2 overs, having spiralled from 114-4 in the 33rd over to 118-8.

After watching a procession of batsmen come in and go out, Sangakkara (45) was forced onto the attack late, and his unprecedented run of consecutive centuries ended at four when he was caught near the boundary by

David Miller off Morne Morkel, bringing to a close his watchful 96-ball innings.

His dismissal made the total 127-9, not long after play was disrupted by a spectator running onto the field, and immediately before a brief shower interrupted play.

Imran returned to take the last wicket, Lasith Malinga (3), to finish off an innings that started with great expectation and ended badly.

Duminy became the first South African and just the eighth bowler to take a World Cup hat trick. His hat trick started on the last ball of the 33rd over when he had skipper Angelo Mathews (19) caught by du Plessis to a poor shot, and continued with wickets on the first two balls of the 35th. He had Nuwan Kulasekara (1) caught behind and Tharindu Kaushal, making his One-day International debut, trapped lbw for a first-ball duck.

Imran chimed in with the wicket of Thisara Perera (0) in the over in between. It was a calamitous period for Sri Lanka, who have relied heavily on their strong top order to post decent totals.

J.P. Duminy rejoices after recording the hat-trick wicket of Tharindu Kaushal during the quarter-final.—AP

The only other significant contribution with the bat came from Lahiru Thirimanne, who scored a cavalier 41 from 48 balls before he was dismissed by Imran in the 20th over. The openers were out with just four on the scoreboard, both to excellent catches; Kusal Perera (3) was caught behind off recalled paceman Kyle Abbott in the second over, and Tillakaratne Dilshan (0) edged Dale Steyn to du Plessis at second slip.

Sangakkara dropped anchor and the runs dried up in partnerships with Jayawardene (4), who was caught behind off Imran, and Mathews, in what amounted to Sri Lanka’s last genuine chance of salvaging the innings.

“We could have at least got to 250 and given our bowlers a chance, but unfortunately we did not bat well,” Mathew said. “Easily our worst performance at the World Cup.”

Scoreboard

SRI LANKA: Runs Balls 4s 6s

M.D.K.J. Perera c de Kock b Abbott 3 6 0 0

T.M. Dilshan c du Plessis b Steyn 0 7 0 0

K.C. Sangakkara c Miller b Morkel 45 96 3 0

H.D.R.L. Thirimanne c and b Imran 41 48 5 0

D.P.M.D. Jayawardene c du Plessis b Imran 4 16 0 0

A.D. Mathews c du Plessis b Duminy 19 32 1 0

N.L.T.C. Perera c Rossouw b Imran 0 3 0 0

K.M.D.N. Kulasekara c de Kock b Duminy 1 2 0 0

P.H.T. Kaushal lbw b Duminy 0 1 0 0

P.V.D. Chameera not out 2 5 0 0

S.L. Malinga c Miller b Imran 3 6 0 0

EXTRAS (B-4, LB-2, W-7, NB-2) 15

TOTAL (all out, 37.2 overs) 133

FALL OF WKTS: 1-3 (M.D.K.J. Perera, 1.4 ov), 2-4 (Dilshan, 4.1 ov), 3-69 (Thirimanne, 19.1 ov), 4-81 (Jayawardene, 23.1 ov), 5-114 (Mathews, 32.6 ov), 6-115 (N.L.T.C. Perera, 33.4 ov), 7-116 (Kulasekara, 34.1 ov), 8-116 (Kaushal, 34.2 ov), 9-127 (Sangakkara, 36.2 ov).

BOWLING: Steyn 7-2-18-1 (1w); Abbott 6-1-27-1 (1w); Morkel

7-1-27-1 (2nb, 2w); Duminy 9-1-29-3 (2w); Imran Tahir 8.2-0-26-4 (1w).

SOUTH AFRICA: Runs Balls 4s 6s

H.M. Amla c Kulasekara b Malinga 16 23 1 0

Q. de Kock not out 78 57 12 0

F. du Plessis not out 21 31 0 0

EXTRAS (LB-4, W-12, NB-3) 19

TOTAL (for one wkt, 18 overs) 134

FALL OF WKT: 1-40 (Amla, 6.4 ov).

DID NOT BAT: R.R. Rossouw, A.B. de Villiers, D.A. Miller, J.P. Duminy, D.W. Steyn, K.J. Abbott, M. Morkel, Imran Tahir.

BOWLING: Malinga 6-0-43-1 (2nb, 3w); Dilshan 2-0-10-0; Kulasekara 1-0-13-0; Kaushal 6-0-25-0; Chameera 2-0-29-0 (1nb, 8w); N.L.T.C. Perera 1-0-10-0 (1w).

RESULT: South Africa won by nine wickets.

UMPIRES: N.J. Llong (England) and R.J. Tucker (Australia).

TV UMPIRE: R.A. Kettleborough (England).

MATCH REFEREE: D.C. Boon (Australia).

MAN-OF-THE-MATCH: Imran Tahir.

Published in Dawn March 19th , 2015

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