Sri Lanka and South Africa faced each other in the second warm-up match of ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 at Sophia Gardens, Cardiff on Friday (May 24).

After being put into bat, South Africa rode on skipper Faf du Plessis’ 69-ball 88 to post 338/7 in 50 overs. Veteran opener Hashim Amla (65 off 61 balls) and Rassie van der Dussen (40 off 41 balls) were the other notable contributors.

For Sri Lanka, Suranga Lakmal and Nuwan Pradeep claimed two scalps each while Isuru Udana, Dhananjaya de Silva and Jeevan Mendis chipped in with wicket apiece.

In the chase, Sri Lanka lost Kusal Perera (0) and Lahiru Thirimanne (10) cheaply. Lungi Ngidi dismissed both of them. The pair of captain Dimuth Karunaratne and Kusal Mendis steadied the sheep by adding 62 runs for the third wicket. Andile Phehlukwayo broke the partnership by trapping Mendis (37) plumb in front.

Karunaratne then joined hands with Angelo Mathews and stitched a 98-run stand for the fourth wicket. Just when Sri Lanka were making a comeback in the contest, Kagiso Rabada came back into the attack and got rid of the well set Karunaratne on 87.

Afterwards, the Lankans kept losing wickets at regular intervals. While Phehlukwayo sent Dhananjaya de Silva (5), Jeevan Mendis (18) and Milinda Siriwardana (5) packing, Duminy removed Mathews (64) to reduce Sri Lanka to 236/8.

Dwaine Pretorius and Imran Tahir completed the formalities by dismissing Jeffrey Vandersay (3) and Lakmal (1) as South Africa eventually bundled out Sri Lanka for 251 in 42.3 overs to secure a thumping 87-run victory.

Brief Scores:

South Africa – 338/7 in 50 overs (Faf du Plessis 88; Suranga Lakmal 2/63) defeated Sri Lanka – 251 all-out in 42.3 overs (Dimuth Karunaratne 87; Andile Phehlukwayo 4/36) by 87 runs