Miller leads South Africa to victory vs Lanka

Centurion

David Miller hit 40 off 18 balls to set up a South Africa win by 19 runs in a rain-shortened first T20I against Sri Lanka at SuperSport Park. Miller’s power hitting enabled South Africa to score 126/6 in a match reduced to ten overs a side before Sri Lanka reached 107/6. Although Sri Lanka made a good start, with Niroshan Dickwella and Dhananjaya de Silva putting on 59 off 31 balls for the first wicket, they could not maintain the run rate and wickets fell rapidly.

Brief scores: South Africa: 126/5 in 10 overs (Miller 40, F Behardien 31; N Kulasekara 2/27); Sri Lanka: 107/6 (Dickwella 43; Ngidi 2/12)

Lahore

Fatigue factor behind Pak’s poor show: Inzamam

Pakistan’s chief selector Inzamam-ul-Haq has attributed the recent string of poor performances by the national team Down Under to fatigue. According to the former Test captain, the Pakistan players have been playing non-stop cricket for the last six months and could be facing fatigue. “And the fact is that our players’ fitness levels are still not at par with that of some other teams so that is also affecting their performances,” he said. He pointed out that after Pakistan went to England in June they have been on the road. “After returning from England, we went to the UAE for the West Indies series after just three or four days, and from there, directly for the tours of New Zealand and Australia,” he said. — Agencies