Hambantota (Sri Lanka), Sep.23: Proteas skipper A.B. de Villiers has claimed that a few rain-shortened games on their recent England tour helped the South Africans in their victory over Sri Lanka on Saturday.
A clinical performance from South Africa saw them beat Sri Lanka by 32 runs in a seven-over-a-side Group C match of the Twenty20 World Cup.
"We played a couple in England towards the end of our series there," De Villiers told reporters here.
"We had a little chat before we started because it''s not easy to keep the focus with all the rain. We spoke about what we learned from England and it was fresh in our minds when we went out. I think that definitely helped. The guys were on the button from ball one," Sports24 quoted De Villiers, as saying.
South Africa, put in to bat first, ran up an impressive total of 78 for four wickets. De Villiers played a great hand to score 30 off just 13 balls and J.P. Duminy provided the finishing touches with a four and a six off the last two deliveries of the innings.
The total proved a steep ask for Sri Lanka and their chase was made even more difficult when flamboyant opener Tillakaratne Dilshan was run out without facing a ball.
The South African bowlers bowled a tight line, and helped by some sharp fielding, restricted Sri Lanka to 46 for five wickets.
Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene felt that his team was below par in both batting and bowling and the loss of early wickets hampered their plan.
© ANI
