SYDNEY – South African allrounder JP Duminy has taken a hat-trick and combined with fellow spinner Imran Tahir to rout Sri Lanka in the cricket World Cup quarter-final at the SCG last night.
The two spinners wrecked Sri Lanka’s batting lineup, as Sri Lanka lost 8-69 to be dismissed for 133 in the 38th over.
The bowling effort gave the Proteas an outstanding chance of finally winning a cricket World Cup knockout match, at the sixth attempt.
Batting first, Sri Lanka lost two wickets in their first four overs to new ball bowlers Kyle Abbott and Dale Steyn and recovered to 2-69, only to be routed by the spinners.
Imran Tahir (4-26) did the initial damage, breaking a threatening 65-run third wicket partnership between Lahiru Thirimanne (41) and Kumar Sangakkara (48).
Thirimanne hit several offside boundaries to get the innings back on track after Sri Lanka was reeling at 2-4 in the fourth over.
Tahir also dismissed Mahela Jayawardene and Thisara Perera before Duminy chipped in.
Duminy, who returned career-best ODI figures of 3-29, had captain Angelo Mathews caught at midwicket with the last ball of his eighth over.
Duminy then struck with the first two balls of his ninth over, having Nuwan Kulasekara caught behind and trapping Tharindu Kaushal lbw first ball.
It was the ninth hat-trick in World Cup history and Duminy became the eighth man to take one.
Sri Lankan Lasith Malinga, who is playing in Wednesday’s game, has taken two.
Sangakkara, playing in his final ODI if Sri Lanka loses, played a watchful innings, taking 16 balls to get off the mark and over 40 before hitting his first boundary.
Sri Lanka was still batting when this edition went to press last night.
