PORT ELIZABETH, South Africa - Buoyed by its first success in any series in South Africa, Sri Lanka will go into the first One-Day International at St George’s Park Saturday with renewed confidence.
On its fifth tour of South Africa, Sri Lanka won its first trophy when it clinched a 2-1 Twenty20 series victory with a five-wicket win in Cape Town Wednesday.
“It’s a great confidence booster,” said Niroshan Dickwella, the Sri Lankan opening batsman who was named Man of the Series.
“Winning against a big team like South Africa is big. The whole team is backing up our strengths now. We are going to play well in the one-day series as well.”
Dickwella identified pitch conditions as the biggest difference in Sri Lanka’s performances after it was outplayed on seam bowler-friendly conditions in three Test matches.
“In this (T20) series, the three wickets were pretty much batting wickets so that’s why it’s easier for us now.”
Sri Lanka Wednesday named batsman Upul Tharanga as captain in place of the injured Angelo Mathews for the ODI series.
The trend of good batting pitches is likely to continue in the one-day games - but the quality of the South African opposition will be better.
The host rested most of its leading players during the T20 series but its big guns will be back in action as they step up their preparations for the Champions Trophy in England in June.
South African coach Russell Domingo said fit-again one-day captain AB de Villiers would slot back into the team at No. 4 in the batting order behind Hashim Amla, Quinton de Kock and Faf du Plessis, with JP Duminy and David Miller likely to follow.
Only Miller was in the original T20 squad, although De Villiers made his international return and scored 63 in Wednesday’s series decider.
“Our top six is pretty established,” said Domingo. “We are trying to find our new ball bowling partnerships and our all-rounders to come in at seven and eight. We also want to look at different combinations - whether to go with one spinner or two and also to identify which spinners they are, whether to pick one all-rounder or two or to go with our best possible bowling combination.”
The competition for all-rounder places is likely to be intense with Chris Morris coming back after a six-month injury lay-off, while Wayne Parnell, Andile Phehlukwayo and Dwaine Pretorius will all be keen to make a claim.
“The main thing ahead of the Champions Trophy is to get everyone playing so we can decide on our best combinations,” said Domingo.
Fixtures:
Jan. 28, Port Elizabeth; Feb. 1, Durban; Feb. 4, Johannesburg; Feb. 7, Cape Town; Feb. 10, Centurion. - Agencies
