Road Safety World Series: Sri Lanka lead the Legends to the finals with the help of five wickets from Nuwan Kulasekara

The Sri Lankan giants will meet India’s veterans at the Road Safety World Series T20 summit at the Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Cricket Stadium on Sunday. And, it was only after Tillakaratne Dilshan’s outfit that Jonty Rhodes’s South Africa giants got the easy win by eight wickets on Friday night. The Sri Lankans were always favorites on paper and reached their potential and form, as they left home for a comfortable victory chasing a target of 126 runs in 16 balls.

The partnership of No. 4 batsman Chintaka Jaisinghe (47 *) and South-Pt Upul Tharanga (39 *) put on a 70-run partnership for the third wicket, Sri Lanka ending at 129 for two wickets in 17.2 overs.

The captain and in-form Dilshan scored 18 and Sanath Jayasuriya also scored several runs.

Earlier, Sri Lankan captain Tillakaratne Dilshan won the toss and was selected for the first region.

This step was taken, leaving the South African team behind at a low score of 125 runs in 20 overs.

Seamer Nuwan Kulasekara was the lead for Sri Lanka with five wickets for 25 runs.

For South Africa, it was opener Morne Van Wyk who hit eight fours with a fifty in 57 balls.

South Africa got off to a positive start with Van Wyk making a solid start, but the Lancs immediately put the brakes on the African bounce, as Kulasekara dismissed his in-form partner Andrew Putick for the Duck.

In need of a larger partnership, South Africans got one from Forest Vyak and Alviro Peterson. The pair were not aggressive, but did not preclude Farvez Mahroof from receiving that odd boundary or rotate strike before reading Strike 65/2 as Peterson’s skull.

Later, Van Wyk scored his first half-century of the tournament, before Sri Lankan legend Sanath Jayasuriya trapped him in front of wickets for 53 runs.

Once the opener was home, it was a formality for Sri Lanka. Apart from Van Wyk and Peterson, only Justin Kemp was able to score in double digits as the rest of the South African batsmen fell for single digits.

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South Africa lost their seven wickets for 29 runs thanks to Kulasekara’s super spell.

Short score: South Africa lost 20/25 in 125 overs (Morne van Wyk 23, Alviro Peterson 27; Nuwan Kulasekara 5/25) to Sri Lanka’s Legends 129/2 in 17.2 overs (Upul Tharanga 39, Chokha Jaisingh 47, Tillakaratne Dilshan 18, Sanath) Jayasuriya 18) by 8 wickets.