Sri Lanka vs South Africa 2013: 1st T20I - JP Duminy stars in a thrilling Proteas win

South African batsman JP Duminy (R) plays a shot during the first Twenty20 cricket match against Sri Lanka at the R. Premadasa Stadium in Colombo

JP Duminy’s all-round heroics assisted South Africa to overcome Sri Lanka by 12-runs in a dramatic low-scoring match in the first T20I at Colombo.

Duminy (51), after scoring almost half of the South African total of 115, chipped in with three important wickets which saw him finish with figures of 3 for 18 from his four overs.

During the innings break it seemed that the target of 116 was not too much to put the hosts under pressure but the South African bowlers kept the home side under the check when they picked up two early wickets of Kushal Perera and Dinesh Chandimal.

Senior pros Tillakaratne Dilshan and Kumar Sangakkara tried to resurrect the Sri Lankan innings, but the former fell after taking on JP Duminy. AB de Villiers completed an easy catch at long-on to send Dilshan back as hosts were reduced to 44 for 3 after 10th over.

Just when South Africa smelled victory, a settled Sangakkara thwarted their plans. During his 28-run stand with captain Angelo Mathews, he was the dominant partner, keeping the strike for 21 deliveries.

When Mathews was dismissed for four, Sri Lanka were on 72 for 4 in the 14th over, still needing 44 runs to win in little over six overs. Sri Lanka were not in danger, but a sudden heap of wickets put them in a fix.

To his horror, Sangakkara was stranded at the non-striker’s end as his partners played the penultimate over of the match without scoring a run with Sri Lanka losing two wickets in that over. Sangakkara, though, never gave up and inspired a rare hope in the final over in the host camp when 21 runs were needed, by smashing consecutive boundaries off the second and third delivery.

However, Morkel held his nerve to put the last two deliveries out of Sanga’s reach to get South Africa home by 12 runs.

Earlier, it was the same old story for visitors as their top order once again failed. The middle order was exposed but only just hung together by a brilliant individual contribution from JP Duminy as they somehow managed to scramble their way to 115 for 6 in 20 allotted overs.

The other notable contributors were David Miller with 25 runs and AB de Villiers with 15 runs. For the hosts, Senanayake starred with 3 wickets which hampered South Africa’s ambition of a higher total. He finished with 3 for 14 in four over spell.