T20 World Cup: South Africa collect six-wicket win after Nortje's 4/10 helps Proteas bowl Sri Lanka out for 77

Pacer Anrich Nortje bounced back to form in style with a four-fer as South Africa bundled Sri Lanka out for a paltry 77 in their T20 World Cup meeting in New York on Monday, pulling off a six-wicket victory as a result.

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Nortje, who had a sub-par season for the Delhi Capitals in the Indian Premier League (IPL), ran through the opposition batting lineup to register remarkable figures of 4/7 as the Lankans were bundled out for their lowest T20I total ever.

Nortje also ended up surpassing his own figures of 4/10 against Bangladesh in Sydney two years ago to rewrite the record for the best figures by a South African bowler at the T20 World Cup.

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“It’s been a while since I’ve had those figures,” said Nortje, the player of the match, at the presentation ceremony. “Just happy to have pulled it off for the team.

“We didn’t know what to expect from the pitch, we’d heard one or two rumours about being up and down,” the 30-year-old added.

Photos | Sri Lanka vs South Africa, T20 World Cup Group D match in New York

Kagiso Rabada (2-21) and left-arm spinner Keshav Maharaj, who took two wickets in two balls on his way to 2-22, also damaged the cause of 2014 champions Sri Lanka.

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Opener Kusal Mendis (19) and veteran all-rounder Angelo Mathews (16) were the only Sri Lanka batsmen to pass 15 after their captain, Wanindu Hasaranga, seemingly misread conditions by opting to bat first upon winning the toss.

South Africa, however, also lost early wickets as their top order also struggled to time the ball on a drop-in pitch that is the cornerstone of a Long Island ground built specially for the tournament.

But the big-hitting Heinrich Klaasen struck a six and a four off successive deliveries on his way to 19 not out as South Africa finished on 80-4 with 26 balls to spare.

The difficulty both sides had in scoring runs raised fears the showpiece match between arch-rivals India and Pakistan — due to be played at the ground on June 9 — could become a lottery.

‘Find ways to score on this ‘

South Africa captain Aiden Markram, whose side have two more games at the ground, said: “Credit for what we did in the field but the batting was a bit up and down.

“It was quite a tough wicket… We’re fortunate that we have our next two here and have a decent idea of how it’s going to play but it’s important to assess as you move around and come up with plans.”

Leg-spinner Hasaranga took 2-22 but in truth he had too few runs to play with following a Sri Lanka innings where he was one of four ducks.

“We were hoping for 160-170 but now we know it was more of a 120-130 wicket, especially with our bowlers,” said Hasaranga. “We wanted to perform a lot better.”

South Africa fast bowler Ottneil Baartman, making his World Cup debut, sparked Sri Lanka’s collapse when, with his first ball, he had Pathum Nissanka caught in the deep before Nortje dismissed Kamindu Mendis in similar fashion.

⚡️Wicket on your first ball in World Cup cricket, did that. ✅

Baartman got off to the 𝒫𝐸𝑅𝐹𝐸𝒞𝒯 start!

Credit: ICC/ Getty #WozaNawe #BePartOfIt #OutOfThisWorld #T20WorldCup pic.twitter.com/Y8NZKDHx2Y

— Proteas Men (@ProteasMenCSA) June 3, 2024

Maharaj then struck twice in the ninth over as both Hasaranga, stumped by De Kock and Sadeera Samarawickrama, clean bowled by a quicker delivery, fell for nought to leave Sri Lanka 32-4 before Charith Asalanka survived the hat-trick.

With AFP inputs