Sri Lanka decided to bowl against South Africa
Liven scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Rain caused a significant delay to the opening T20 © AFP
Six new caps across both teams had to wait more than two hours as summer rainfall fell at SuperSport Park and kept the sell-out crowd waiting for home boy Farhaan Behardien’s first match in charge. He had his family in attendance to monitor if he “tossed the coin right” but he didn’t. Angelo Mathews called correctly and chose to bowl in a shortened encounter.
South Africa’s new-look batting line-up would be able to show what they are capable of first up. Debutant Jon-Jon Smuts partnered Heino Kuhn, making his return after five T20s in 2009-10, at the top with another rookie Thenis de Bruyn at No.3. Mangaliso Mosehle took the gloves while Andile Phehlukwayo and Lungi Ngidi also made their maiden appearances in an attack that includes two specialist and experienced spinners in Imran Tahir and Aaron Phangiso.
Sri Lanka only had one new face in allrounder Thikshila de Silva but were still significantly different to the outfit that played the Tests. Niroshan Dickwella, Asela Gunaratne, Seekkuge Prasanna and Nuwan Kulasekara were the new faces.
With only 10 overs a side each bowler could deliver a maximum of two overs, with a three-over Powerplay upfront.
South Africa 1 Jon-Jon Smuts, 2 Heino Kuhn, 3 Theunis de Bruyn, 4 David Miller, 5 Farhaan Behardien (capt), 6 Mangaliso Mosehle (wk), 7 Wayne Parnell, 8 Andile Phehlukwayo, 9 Aaron Phangiso, 10 Lungi Ngidi, 11 Imran Tahir
Sri Lanka 1 Niroshan Dickwella, 2 Dhananjaya de Silva, 3 Kusal Mendis 4 Angelo Mathews (capt), 5 Dinesh Chandimal (wk), 6 Asela Gunaratne, 7 Thikshila de Silva, 8 Seekkuge Prasanna, 9 Nuwan Kulasekara, 10 Nuwan Pradeep, 11 Suranga Lakmal
Firdose Moonda is ESPNcricinfo’s South Africa correspondent
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Source: ESPN Crickinfo