Centurion: South Africa's hopes of winning a major title in cricket world received an unexpected blow as they were beaten by Sri Lanka on Tuesday in the opening Champions Trophy game.
Sri Lanka won the match by 55 runs on Duckworth Lewis when rain curtailed South Africa's innings by 12.2 overs.
Riding on Tilakaratne Dilshan's superb century (106) and Jayawardene's 77 Sri Lanka had set a tough target of 320 runs for South Africa.
South Africa did not get a good start as they lost their opener began Hashim Amla for two with the score on 9-1. 'Mysterious' Mendis wrecked South African batting line up by removing Graeme Smith, Jacques Kallis and JP Duminy cheaply.
When the rain stopped the game in 38th over, South Africa were struggling on 206 for seven. The showers didn't stop and Sri Lanka were awarded a 55 run victory under the Duckworth-Lewis method.
Ajantha is a big challenge for anyone playing him for the first time,'' said Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara.
Champions Trophy-Fixture-
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"With him, Muttiah Muralitharan and Lasith Malinga, we have a lot of unorthodox match-winners in our side."
For Sri Lanka, Tillakaratne Dilshan's swashbuckling century of 106 contained 16 boundaries and one six in 92 balls. It was the Dilshan who stole the honours of the day with clean hitting as he took the match away from South Africans
Lankan captain Sangakkara (54) and Dilshan shared a 158 -run partnership. After Dilshan's dismissal, Jayawardene and Thilan Samaraweera restored Sri Lanka's momentum with a partnership of 116 for the fourth wicket.
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