Sixth One-day International: Cricket Web XI vs South Africa
at R. Premadasa Stadium
Scorecard
Ball By Ball
Kingsley Clapham and Neil Pickup feasted as Cricket Web XI put out a dominant bowling performance to humble the South Africans and set up the final showdown most neutrals in Sri Lanka would have preferred. Cricket Web XI had earlier put up another rather shoddy batting performance, but with the bowlers on song, it hardly mattered.
After being inserted, Nick Scott - replacing James Stedman at the top after the latter's lack of runs in recent times - entertained a meagre crowd with a moderate 17, Cloete and Chaulk set the match back alight, though the runs were not flowing in the manner they usually do for Black. A dead outfield contributed, along with electric South Africa fielding, and by the end of the twenty powerplay overs Cricket Web stood at a sedate 91 for one.
Cloete was caught at the wicket shortly afterwards, and the enigma Chris Butler replaced him. Heavily out of form on tour, he began his innings by coolly reverse sweeping Johan Botha - hardly a dangerous proposition - for four with the third ball, and glued the innings together after Chaulk committed hara-kiri on 62. Morne Morkel continued to bowl with decent pace and became a heady proposition, scrambling together three for 39 including the debutant Read, who was bowled for four. However, Crampton and Butler managed to strike the boundary seven times in the final three overs, and boosted the Webhead total to 229 for five.
This South Africa needed to chase in 40 overs to keep Cricket Web XI out of the final. Judging by their batting, it seems they aimed to, only failed miserably. Gibbs had been dropped for Amla in this game, and Amla quickly got to bat, as de Villiers failed to keep out a snorter from Gough - yorked for a three-ball duck. Graeme Smith then nicked his namesake to first slip for two, and South Africa had lost their first two wickets for five runs.
Patient rebuilding was required - so Kallis decided to keep his partner on his toes. Calling for a bizarre run in the fifth over, Amla sprinted to make it safe at the non-strikers' end, but to no avail as Kallis was a good two feet short after third umpire consultation. Duminy looked to have seen off the new ball threat, however, and after eleven overs the match looked to settle into a more normal 50-over pattern.
Smith thought otherwise. Pulling out a stunning catch off Clapham to dismiss Amla, he reignited the Webhead effort, while the South Africans quickly ran out of recognised batsmen. Rory Kleinveldt smashed a slog to Read at second slip, Duminy smashed Clapham about a bit before being caught by Scott at long on, and Morne Morkel was lbw - Clapham suddenly had four for 20, and South Africa were 73 for seven. Going for the kill, Pickup put four slips in to his own bowling - then held a return catch off Boucher. Cloete dropped Ntini next ball, but it was of little consequence, as Crampton stumped him in Pickup's next over, and Steyn finished off with another catch to an obliging Chaulk. South Africa had been thoroughly routed for 91 - nothing is wrong with the bowling, but the batsmen need to learn how to up the tempo.
Cricket Web XI 229 for five (50)
Butler 66*, Chaulk 62; Morkel 3/39
South Africa 91 all out (24.2)
Duminy 26; Clapham 4/27 (8), Pickup 3/11 (2.2)
Cricket Web XI won by 138 runs
Man of the Match: K. R. Clapham (Cricket Web XI)
Final table: Cricket Web XI 14pts, Sri Lanka 9pts, South Africa 7pts
Series Stats. Note ridiculously low strike rates on Sri Lankan wickets.