Sri Lanka collapsed to 133 all out against South Africa in their World Cup quarter-final at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Wednesday.

Sri Lanka put themselves at a disadvantage right at the start by fiddling with what has been a rock-solid opening combination by choosing to send Kusal Perera to open the innings. The man who is billed as Sanath Jayasuriya’s clone tried to slog his way at the top but inadvertently failed to get going. His three runs came off 10 balls, most of which were plays and misses. He was done in by Kyle Abbott, who was unplayable with the new ball. Perera edged to Quinton de Kock, who took a terrific catch, juggling a bit mid-air before recovering well enough to secure the catch.

If Perera’s dismissal was on the cards, Tillakaratne Dilshan’s was a result of the poor batting displayed at the other end. Dilshan went hard at Dale Steyn in the fifth over — with just four runs on the board — and ended up edging to Faf du Plessis at slip. That brought in Lahiru Thirimanne, who was by far the most fluent batsman on the day. Thirimanne scored 41 off 48 balls fith five boundaries before playing early off Imran Tahir and offering a simple return catch which the bowler happily accepted.

Mahela Jayawardene walked out at No. 5 for what could be the final time in his career. Unfortunately, the Sangakkara-Jayawardene partnership that has caused bowlers worldwide such strife for so long was cut short early when Jayawardene pulled a short ball straight to midwicket. Angelo Mathews soon followed suit, trying to go over long on off Duminy only to pick out du Plessis at midwicket.

That was the start of the end, as Thisara Perera edged to Rilee Rossouw at slip from the gloves of de Kock off Tahir. Nuwan Kulasekara then edged behind and walked off the first ball of Duminy’s next over (he had dismissed Mathews off the final ball of his last one). Debutant mystery spinner Tharindu Kaushal was struck plumb in front off his first delivery in international cricket to award Duminy the first ever World Cup hat-trick by a South African.

All hopes rested on the broad record-breaking shoulders of Sangakkara. He hit two boundaries to raise Sri Lanka’s hopes, but was caught at third man by David Miller to be dismissed.

(NTV)