Sri Lanka succumb to #ProteaFire as SA advance to semis
South Africa put together a convincing performance to knock Sri Lanka out of the ICC Cricket World Cup.
Led by the brilliant bowling of nan of the match Imran Tahir, South Africa bowled Sri Lanka out for 132. Although Tahir managed to take four wickets for 21 runs in his eight overs, the opening spells by Dale Steyn and Kyle Abbott went a long way towards setting up victory for the Proteas.
Captain AB de Villiers said, “I’m very proud of the way the boys played today. We had a good feeling coming in today; we rocked up mentally today and were almost obsessed with our goal. Looking back, I’m really glad we bowled first.”
After being the man facing the potential chop from the team, Quinton de Kock scored the winning runs to end on 78 from 57 balls.
De Villiers welcomed de Kock’s return of form by saying, “He’s been going through a tough time and a lot of credit must go to the selectors and coach for continuing to back him. It’s good to have Quinny back.”
The result means that this is the first time South Africa wins a knockout match during a world cup. De Villiers remains ‘quietly confident’ about the team’s chances of lifting the trophy. He said, “I like to believe in big things and I truly believe we can do this, otherwise we wouldn’t be here.”
South Africa will be playing their next game on Tuesday, March 24, against the winner of the game between New Zealand and the West Indies.
