McLaren outshines stars in SA win

Times Media

TELFORD VICE, Cape Town

Ryan McLaren would not stick out in a line-up of SA’s more conspicuous cricketers, particularly not when Hashim Amla scores a century and Imran Tahir counts Mahela Jayawardene among his three victims.

Not for McLaren the tattooed terror that is Dale Steyn nor the hurricane hitting of AB de Villiers. In another life, McLaren would earn a living behind a desk.

But yesterday, in this life, more than anyone else, McLaren clinched SA’s 75-run win over Sri Lanka in the first one-day international in Colombo.

He clipped 22 not out in an unbroken stand of 55 with David Miller that took SA to their highest ODI total in Sri Lanka, 304/5, and prompted De Villiers to praise the pair with, “That’s what this team is all about.” McLaren also held on to the steepler that completed the home side’s dismissal for 229 in 40.3 overs.

Neither of those contributions, useful though they were, won the game. What did was McLaren finding the character to recover from being swatted for three consecutive boundaries by Kumar Sangakkara to, in three balls of his next over, end the biggest stand of the innings and then remove Sangakkara.

“That was huge,” De Villiers said. “Sri Lanka were very quickly winning the game.”

With Sangakkara and his threatening 88 went Sri Lanka’s hopes. He was among the debris of an innings in which the last five wickets crashed for 13 runs in 21 balls.

“It’s always a concern when ‘Sanga’ walks to the crease and he almost took it way from us today,” De Villiers said.

The victory was only SA’s third in 17 ODIs against Sri Lanka on the island, and it puts them in pole position to win a series there in this format for the first time. The remaining matches will be played in Pallekele and Hambantota on Wednesday and Saturday.

Amla’s 109 was a blueprint of patience and composure. He faced 47 balls without finding the fence between his first and second boundaries, and responded to being dropped on 49 by going to his 50 two deliveries later.

What with an unusually subdued Quinton de Kock out for 27 and Jacques Kallis gone second ball, it was left to De Villiers to help Amla keep the innings on course. They did so with a dominant partnership of 151 off 141 balls.

The Lankans squandered chances to snuff out the stand for 31 - when a chance De Villiers offered on 17 was grassed - and for 50, when Amla was given his life. De Villiers curbed his creative instincts and played impeccably straight for his 75.

SA’s momentum looked like flagging when De Villiers, Amla and JP Duminy were dismissed 38 runs apart between the 36th and 45th overs. But Miller and McLaren pulled the visitors out of their impending nosedive with spirited batting.

Miller’s six over extra cover off a delivery from Lasith Malinga that scythed low and away from the left-hander was a thing of frightening beauty. The audacity of the stroke left Malinga looking shocked.

The Sri Lankans could not offer anything as enterprising in reply, Sangakkara’s ominous innings apart. Kusal Perera and Tillakaratne Dilshan shared 50 for the first wicket, and Sangakkara and Lahiru Thirimanne added 52 for the sixth. But, aside from their top order, none of the home side’s batsman scored more than 15.