SA make ten in a row
Agence France Presse

Bloemfontein, January 14: Herschelle Gibbs showed the first real evidence of a return to form by guiding South Africa to their tenth consecutive One-Day win with a fluent 79 in the fifth limited overs international against Sri Lanka at Springbok Park on Sunday.

South Africa won by five wickets with eight overs to spare, taking them to within one victory of the World record of 11 successive wins set by the West Indies in 1984-85. Sri Lanka squandered a fast start when they were bowled out for 206 after being sent in.

It proved an easy target for South Africa, inspired by Gibbs, who only returned to the side on January 2 after completing a six-month ban for conspiring in match fixing in the scandal.

Scoreboard

Sri Lanka:Jayasuriya c Boucher b Pollock 23; Kaluwitharana c Boje b Pollock 9; Atapattu b Ntini 20; A.de Silva c and b Kallis 20; Jayawardene c Boucher b Kallis 1; Arnold c Pollock b Boje 32; Sangakkara c Dippenaar b Pollock 33; Vaas c Kallis b Donald 7; Wickramasinghe c Boucher b Boje 32; Fernando not out 12; Muralitharan run out (Kemp) 6; Extras (lb-1, w-9, nb-1): 11; Total (49.2 overs): 206
Fall of wickets:1-24, 2-35, 3-67, 4-78, 5-80, 6-142, 7-152, 8-160, 9-194

Bowling: Pollock 10-2-44-3, Donald 7-0-42-1, Kallis 8-0-33-2, Ntini 10-1-38-1, Kemp 5-0-15-0, Boje 9.2-0-33-2

South Africa: H Dippenaar c Arnold b Wickramasinghe 28, H Gibbs run out (Atapattu) 79, N Boje lbw b Muralitharan 40, J Kallis lbw b Vaas 31, N McKenzie c sub (Dilshan) b de Silva 0, J Rhodes not out 11, M Boucher not out 8 Extras (lb-1, nb-7, w-2) 10, Total (for 5 wkts, 42 overs) 207.Fall of wickets:1-51, 2-112, 3-177, 4-180, 5-192.

Bowling: Vaas 8-2-30-1, Fernando 4-0-38-0, De Silva 6-0-32-1, Wickramasinghe 3-0-23-1, Muralitharan 10-1-31-1, Jayasuriya 9-1-34-0, Arnold 2-0-18-0.

Copyright © 2001 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.