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South Africa sneak home despite Malinga hat-trick
Georgetown (Guyana), Mar 29 (PTI) South Africa survived a sensational hat-trick by Sri Lankan pacer Lasith Malinga to sneak home for a nail-biting one-wicket victory in the World Cup Super Eight cricket one-dayer here on Wednesday.
After restricting Sri Lanka to 209, South Africa were smelling victory at 206 for five when Malinga grabbed four wickets off successive deliveries to revive Sri Lanka's hopes of a miraculous win at the Providence Stadium.
Malinga dismissed Shaun Pollock (13) and Andrew Hall (0) off the fifth and sixth ball of the 45th over. The 23-year-old right-arm bowler with sling-shot action then had Jacques Kallis (86) and Makhaya Ntini (0) off the first two deliveries of the 47th over.
Chaminda Vaas then bowled a maiden over to keep the pressure on South Africa's last pair of Robin Peterson and Charl Langeveldt.
Malinga, bowling his last and the innings' 49th, almost had Peterson with a searing full length delivery but the outside edge went past the slip cordon to third man boundary, much to the relief of the South Africans.
The result not only gave valuable two points to South Africa, who advanced the second stage without any, but also saw them bag a cheque of USD 150,000 for winning the annual ICC ODI Team championship.