South Africa is on the island nation, for an ODI series and three T20Is. Sri Lanka spun a web against them to take the ODI series 2-1 and the upcoming T20I series would not get any easier for the visitors as Sri Lanka is high on confidence with their recent series victory against India in the same format.
It will be a battle of who plays the spinning ball better in those conditions. The top four wicket-takers in the ODI series were all spinners, two from each side. Tabraiz Shamsi was the leading wicket-taker with eight wickets at an average of just 16.88 in three matches. Shamsi is currently the no.1 T20I bowler and would be South Africa’s key player going into the series. We will look at the same in this stats analysis.
Shamsi’s Recent Performance
Shamsi has been economical and a consistent wicket-taker in the last few series for South Africa. An outstanding performance against the mighty West Indies, having an economy of four per over in a five-match series where the batsmen were striking as follows, F.Allen at 197, E. Lewis at 160, A.Russel at 151, and K.Pollard at 143, goes to show how he has been able to restrict the flow of runs against the best of attacking batsman.
A leg spinner’s role in a T20 match is to pick up wickets even if he is proving to be expensive in the process. Shamsi has controlled the flow of runs and therefore also ended up picking more wickets for South Africa. Since his debut, no other South African bowler has more wickets or a better economy than him. He is also the most consistent bowler in the team and is the first name on the team sheet
Generally, a batting team has a game plan to play out the opposition’s best bowler and target the rest, which results in the bowler bowling economically and not getting too many wickets as the batsmen have not been on attacking mode. In such a scenario it’s the responsibility of the other bowlers to provide the crucial breakthroughs. Such has also been the case with South Africa. Shamsi has picked up 25 wickets in 18 matches at an economy of 7.58 in those matches where South Africa ended up losing The other bowlers have not been able to support him as seen in the stats. Shamsi’s is the best performing bowler in the matches won by South Africa, picking 20 wickets at an economy of below six.
Sri Lanka-South Africa Series
In the ODI format, Shamsi was well supported by Keshav Maharaj who picked up 6 wickets at an average of 16.67, the batting department’s failure was the key reason for South Africa’s performance in the series. The other spin bowling options available are Bjorn Fortuin & George Linde. The team should look to play 2 more spinners along with Shamsi, and most probably they will be Maharaj given his recent performance, and Linde who will provide the all-rounder option. One of the issues which the team might face is that apart from Shamsi everyone else is a slow left-arm orthodox bowler, and the squad lacks variety. It can be tackled during this series as Sri Lanka has only 4/12 left-handers in their squad and South Africa might not need the variety of an off-spinner.
Stats Highlights
Sri Lanka has only won 6 out of the 23 matches at R. Premadasa Stadium, Colombo and score at a rate of 7.41 runs per over. Their chasing record at home is not good, winning only 8/24 matches. South Africa on the other end is very good at defending at a total winning 17/28 matches away from home They also have won 8/14 matches chasing away from home at a rate of 7.76 runs per over.
Conclusion
South Africa’s head-to-head record with Sri Lanka and the other stats highlights, given that all the 3 T20I’s will be played at Colombo, statistically the visitors are the favourites going into the series. But the recent performance and lack of experience of South Africa against spin bowling will favour the Sri Lankan side. Shamsi will be the most important player going into the series and would require backup from the bowling department and at least the team would want the batting department to hit the average run rate if not score more. Shamsi might win them a game, but to win the series they will need performance from some other players, preferable the other spin bowlers, and also would be great practice and a reality check for the upcoming T-20 World Cup in Dubai.