South Africa vs Sri Lanka Preview: Plenty to play for both nations as Sri Lanka hopes to make semis

Lasith Malinga starred for Sri Lanka over England, can he do it again?

Sri Lanka are one of the teams who are living on a prayer in the ICC World Cup 2019. Buoyed by two wash-outs, seemingly gifting them two extra points, their 20-run win over hosts England has given them an outside chance of making the semifinals if all permutations and combination

For that to happen they need to win all three of their remaining games starting with South Africa at Chester-le-Street in Durham on Friday. Sri Lanka’s opponents have had a disastrous time in the tournament so far and after seven games they only have a win over Afghanistan to show for their efforts.

Coming into the World Cup, Sri Lanka were the weaker of the two sides, especially after the 4-0 mauling at the hands of South Africa earlier this year. But slowly they have managed to keep themselves in the hunt for reaching the last four stage.

In the first few games, Sri Lanka’s middle-order was the biggest cause of concern with the bulk of the scoring done by opener and skipper Dimuth Karunaratne and his partner Kusal Perera. However, the game against England helped the likes of Kusal Mendis, Avishka Fernando and Angelo Mathews hit form at the right time.

The man crucial to their turnaround has been former ODI captain and pace spearhead Lasith Malinga. He might have lost some pace with age but makes up for that with his guile and remains a big threat as the Englishmen found out.

South African batsmen have struggled throughout the tournament and Malinga & Co will look to keep them down to keep their hopes alives. For South Africa, they will be looking to play for pride with some players potentitally playing in their last World Cup. Players like Quinton de Kock will feature in future World Cups, but would love to turn around not only their personal form, but that of their nations to send out champion players like Faf du Plessis and JP Duminy winners from their remaining couple of matches. South Africa never recovered from the withdrawal of Dale Steyn, alongside the shock retirement of their best batsman, AB de Villiers, two players who could have completely changed the way this campaign went for the Protea's.

WATCH OUT FOR - Lasith Malinga

Lasith Malinga starred against England and will hoping for another inspired performance.

On the back of his man of the match performance against England, Lasith Malinga will be looking to back up his performance with another inspired spell of bowling, with plenty of those yorkers we've come to love. If Malinga can have the same impact, it will dictate the result of the match.   PREDICTION South Africa playing for pride, Sri Lanka playing for the slim hope of making the finals. It's questionable as to who has more to play for and who will be likely to show up and want this win more. Sri Lanka, on their form, probably should win this one, but South Africa are a quality team likely to strike when least expected.

South Africa to win by 40-50 runs / 2-3 wickets.

STATISTICS

HEAD TO HEAD ODI Matches: 76 South Africa: 43

Sri Lanka: 1 Tied: 1

N/R: 1

HEAD TO HEAD IN WORLD CUPS Matches: 5

South Africa: 3

Sri Lanka: 1

Tied: 1

WORLD CUP RECORDS

South Africa

Matches: 61

Won: 36

Lost: 23

Best Result - Semi-Finalists (1992, 1999, 2007, 2011)

Sri Lanka

Matches: 77

Won: 36

Lost: 37

Tie: 1

Best Result - Winners (1996)

ODI Record since World Cup 2015:

South Africa

Matches: 80

Won: 48

Lost: 31

Sri Lanka

Matches: 89

Won: 25

Lost: 57