South Africa 307 for 6 (Miller 117*, du Plessis 105) v Sri Lanka
Live scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Faf du Plessis made his seventh ODI hundred © AFP
A velvet-smooth 105 from Faf du Plessis, and a mature unbeaten 117 – replete with finishing fireworks – from David Miller, sent South Africa to an imposing 307 for 5 at Durban. Sri Lanka had had the hosts at 108 for 4, but let one chance slip, and failed to create another through the middle overs of the innings. Their bowling had appeared the stronger of their suits ahead of this match. Their top order, which has again been altered for this match, will need to help produce the team’s highest score of the tour to win the match.
Du Plessis was both secure and productive after coming to the crease in the fourth over, and saw his team through early wobbles when Sri Lanka’s spinners seemed ready to take control of the match. Miller, meanwhile, rebuilt sagely alongside du Plessis, and stuck around to oversee the final burst. His last 18 balls brought him three sixes and 36 runs.
Sri Lanka’s seamers had been moderately effective at the top of the innings, but on a track suited to batting, could not provide a tight finish – Nuwan Kulasekara suffering at the death in particular, leaking 20 runs in the final over. Lakshan Sandakan was perhaps the best of Sri Lanka’s bowlers again, taking the wicket of AB de Villiers cheaply early in his first spell, though he should have had du Plessis’ wicket as well.
It was the frill-free back foot punch that eventually took du Plessis to triple figures, but it had defined the early stages of his innings as well, as he leant back to punish short deliveries from the spinners through the cover region – though plenty of runs came square of the leg side as well. In between the boundaries were an inexhaustible tick-tock of singles and twos. Where other batsmen in the top order were inert against spin early in their innings, du Plessis often seemed in complete control of the pace of his progress.
His sole mistake came on 63: reaching for a flighted Sandakan stock ball, du Plessis sent a low edge to Dhananjaya de Silva at slip. The chance was grassed, and the chance to have South Africa 118 for 5 squandered. That partnership with Miller took root and flourished for more than 22 overs, yielding 117 runs and forming the thorax of South Africa’s innings.
While du Plessis’ innings rarely waivered from a strike rate of around 90, Miller advanced more in spurts through the first half of his knock. Happy at first to work the ball around with his partner, he ventured big shots whenever his scoring rate began to lag: it was consecutive straight sixes of Dhananjaya de Silva that sped him from 39 off 52 balls to 51 off 54.
A diet of runs into the outfield sustained him after reaching that half century, but it wasn’t long before the death overs coaxed him into a destructive mood again. He cracked Suranga Lakmal to the deep cover fence in the 44th over, smoked Kulasekara over long on two overs later, then having completed his fourth ODI hundred off the first ball of the final over, exploded spectacularly in the last five balls to launch South Africa beyond 300. He hit two straight sixes off two wayward Kulasekara deliveries – the second of which sent the ball bouncing down the road – and finished the innings with a four behind square on the offside to boot.
Perhaps he had only shown snatches of form during T20 series, but he did have roaring ODI from at this venue. It was in Durban last October that he had blasted 118 not out off 79 balls to lead a staggering chase that had been floundering against Australia. That pursuit of 371 is by a distance the highest chase at this venue. Sri Lanka will need to post the second-highest successful pursuit in Kingsmead if they are to level the series this evening.
Sri Lanka’s best period had been the 10-over stretch immediately after the end of the first 10-over Powerplay, when Dhananjaya, Sandakan and Sachith Pathirana each took a wicket and conceded only 48 from those 60 balls. It is possible Sri Lanka have erred in asking South Africa to bat first on what appeared a good batting track ahead of the match – though they might have reasoned that their only wins on tour, in the T20s, had come when chasing a score.
Andrew Fidel Fernando is ESPNcricinfo’s Sri Lanka correspondent. @andrewffernando
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Source: ESPN Crickinfo