South Africa capitulate post de Kock belligerence

South Africa threw away a blistering start to the second ODI against Sri Lanka, folding for a middling 251 despite setting themselves up for a total in excess of 300 on a fine batting surface at the SuperSport Park in Centurion. Quinton de Kock smashed a rapid 70-ball 94 and then smashed his bat in anger in the dressing room, but even he wouldn't have foreseen the capitulation that followed as South Africa lost their last six wickets for 31 runs on Wednesday (March 6).

Thisara Perera orchestrated the collapse by first denying de Kock's century and then followed that with the wickets of Rassie van der Dussen and the other half-centurion Faf du Plessis. Dhananjaya de Silva and Lasith Malinga picked up two wickets apiece.

Malinga elected to field but would have questioned his decision several times over as de Kock wreaked havoc on his fellow fast bowlers even as he kept Reeza Hendricks tied down. Vishwa Fernando was at the receiving end of some preferential treatment as the southpaw capitalised on the full and wide deliveries to pepper the cover boundary with four boundaries in the second over. The early assault forced Malinga to replace Fernando with offie Dhananjaya. But the conventional wisdom of the away spinner stood no chance against de Kock in this mood.

The keeper-batsman raced to a half-century off 36 deliveries, with 48 of his runs coming through boundaries. By the 10th over, the hosts had motored along to 75 for no-loss. It was after the PowerPlay that Sri Lanka began finding their way back into the contest. Akila Dananjaya and Kasun Rajitha put a lid on the scoring over the next four-and-a-half overs, a crucial period of play in the context of the game with the openers managing just 16 runs. Hendricks, in particular, had been scoring at a rate of 70 meaning a get-out-of-jail shot was always coming.

Malinga, always a shrewd operator, bowled a short ball - about the first such delivery attempted on the day - and elicited a top-edge that was gobbled up at fine leg. Perera then came on to the attack and struck a hammer blow in his second over. De Kock closed his bat face early attempting a flick and saw the ball land in the keeper's gloves via his leading edge. One brought two as van der Dussen dragged a short and wide delivery to deep-midwicket.

Wiaan Mulder began his innings with four successive boundaries off Rajitha before bizarrely losing his leg stump after missing an attempted flick of Fernando. Du Plessis kept one end going and followed his century in the first game with a half-century in this one. But soon after getting to 5,000 ODI runs, he was cleaned up by a Perera delivery that kept low.

Andile Phehlukwayo, who came in for Dwaine Pretorius, didn't do his case any good with an ungainly cut shot as South Africa imploded. The last five batsmen all managed single-digit scores as the hosts folded with 29 deliveries to spare.

Brief scores: South Africa 251 in 45.1 overs (Quinton de Kock 94, Faf du Plessis 57; Thisara Perera 3-26, Lasith Malinga 2-39) vs Sri Lanka