South Africa were crushed by Sangakkara

Kumar Sangakkara claimed the day. Sri Lanka got off to a good start in the series by beating South Africa by a big margin in the first match of the five-match ODI series based on his bat. Batting, bowling, fielding, the Proteas were defeated against Sri Lanka. Yesterday, the audience saw two completely different images at the Premadasa ground. South Africa lost all wickets for just 140 runs on the ground where the Lankans made a huge collection of 320 runs by beating the Protea bowlers. Kumar Sangakkara wrote his name in the record book by scoring 169 runs single-handedly on Sri Lanka soil in the match.

South Africa won the toss and bowled. Chris Morris also made a good start in bowling by returning Dilshan to a personal 10 runs in 3.5 overs. But probably no one thought that the Lankan batsmen would leave their nose sweat and tears together. Tharanga-Sangakkara's 70 runs in the second wicket partnership, Jayawardene-Sangakkara's 74 runs in the third wicket partnership and Thirimanne-Sangakkara's 123 runs in the fourth wicket partnership gave Lanka a huge collection of 320 runs. The second and third highest runs of the match came from Tharanga-Jayawardhan's bat. Both scored 43 and 42 runs respectively.

On the other hand, Kumar Sangakkara scored 169 runs from 137 balls with the help of 18 4s and 6 6s. Sangakkara has turned the baton over all the South African bowlers. They could not stop him with any spin or short ball. Sangakkara came out of the shell after 91 runs to make the first 66 runs. This is Sangakkara's highest individual innings, the previous one being 138 not out. After the torture of the bowlers, Sangakkara was caught by Duminy off Fangiso.

In the run chase, what South Africa needed most was a stormy start, and Hashim Amla could provide that. Malinga dismissed Ingram for 0 runs on the first ball and gave Lanka a breakthrough. Sangakkara stumped Duminy off Erenger for 29 runs. Then de Villiers-Pietersen added 44 runs in the third wicket pair and tried to deal with the initial shock. The Proteas collapsed in a hurry when both of them were out in two consecutive overs after the team scored 73 and 75 runs. Pietersen-Villiers scored 29 and 23 runs.

South Africa stopped at 140 runs by giving up wickets at regular intervals. Robin Pietersen and Alviro Pietersen scored the highest 29 runs. Among the Lankan bowlers, Herath and Perera took 3 wickets each. Dilshan took 2 wickets and Malanga-Erenga 1 wicket each. Sangakkara, a terror among the South African bowlers, was awarded the man of the match award in what was Sri Lanka's 350th ODI. The second match of the series will be played on July 23, 3 PM Bangladesh time.