The Sri Lanka legends led by a spell-bounding performance by Nuwan Kulasekara, defeated the South Africa Legends in the second semi-final of the Road Safety World Series T20 to book a place in the finals. The Sri Lankan Legends team will now face the Indian Legends in the final of the event at the Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Stadium at Raipur.
Kulasekara was at his usual best as he removed dangerman Andrew Puttick initially in his first spell for a duck. In his second spell, he took a leap forward and took out two wickets each in his last two overs, ending the South African innings, without any flourish. Even after getting a solid start from Alviro Petersen and Morne van Wyk for the third wicket, the Proteas Legends team could only score 125 in their allocated 50 overs. van Wyk was the highest scorer with 53 from 47 balls.
Chasing an easy target of 126, the Sri Lankans didn’t waste much time even as their best batsman and skipper in Tilakratne Dilshan was removed cheaply for 18. Legendary Sanath Jayasuriya too failed to impress. Chinthaka Jayasinghe and Upul Tharanga then combined and finished the game in the 18th over, scoring together 70 runs in 48 balls. While Jayasinghe remained unbeaten on 47 from 25, Tharanga was not out on 39 from 44.