Stroll in the park for SA
By Peter Martin - December 2000

EAST LONDON -- It was all too easy for South Africa in their one-day internatio-nal clash with Sri Lanka at Buffalo Park here yesterday.

As internationals go, the end of the match turned into a stroll in the park for the home team as they won by 95 runs.

A disappointing finish for a 13 000-strong crowd who had come to Buffalo Park expecting to see an exciting end to the game with batsmen swinging lustily at every ball bowled.

Instead South Africa's batting hero, Neil McKenzie bowled the last over with Sri Lanka in an impossible
position for a win.

In fact the result of the match was a foregone conclusion from about the 30th over as the run-rate required by Sri Lanka rose alarmingly.

With the Sri Lankan batsmen unable to come to terms with the pace and bounce of the pitch, full marks to Shaun Pollock's team as they took all the honours.

They outplayed the visitors in all aspects of the game -- batting, bowling and fielding.

Earlier in the day Northerns' middle-order batsman, Neil McKenzie sealed his place in the SA one-day team with a determined maiden cen-tury made off 135 balls in a shade over three hours with 13 fours and a six.

He was fortunate to be dropped on 35 when he turned off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan to Upal Chandana at square-leg who spilled a relatively easy catch.

From then on McKenzie was the solid rock around which South Africa's 302 for seven wickets was built, and while he accumulated runs steadily this allowed both Jonty Rhodes and Border star Mark Boucher to attack the Sri Lankan bowlers and smash their way to quick half-centuries.

Coincidentally both were dismissed off the next ball after reaching their respective 50s -- Boucher after a
huge six off Muralitharan who was punished unmercifully by the wicketkeeper.

Boucher, too, was lucky in that two catches were grassed off him, but he rode his luck and attacked
unrelentingly, entertaining his home crowd and effectively taking the match from the visitors.

The two added exactly 100 runs in 53 minutes when Boucher, who had just hit a six, miscued a drive to be caught in the covers.

The total was the highest one-day total ever made at Buffalo Park, eclipsing the 292 for nine wickets scored by the West Indies two years ago.

When Sri Lanka batted some excellent bowling by Pollock pegged the visitors back when they lost the
wickets of their two openers, Romesh Kaluwitherana who was trapped in front for two, and Sanath
Jayasuriya, who got an inside edge to play on for seven.

Then a switch in the attack brought on Makhaya Ntini who got a special cheer when he bowled the fastest ball of the day with his second delivery -- 145kph.

Ntini also grabbed two wickets -- he had Marvan Atapattu caught behind and Kumar Sangakkara was
caught in the covers.

After Chandana was out caught and bowled by Nicky Boje, the visitors virtually put up shutters as they
realised there was no hope of a win.

Russel Arnold and Chaminda Vaas added an unbeaten 60 runs for the seventh-wicket as the overs ran out.

The teams meet again at Kingsmead for the first of three five-day Tests on December 26.

The one-day series resumes on January 11 at Newlands.