VB Series, 2005-06
VB Series, 2005-06
Daniel Brettig
15-Apr-2007
At Perth, January 31, 2006 (day/night). South Africa won by five wickets. South Africa 4 pts.
Toss: Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka squandered a tremendous start when they lost seven wickets for 45, a collapse their
coach Tom Moody described as the worst he had known. The unlikely engineer of the chaos,
which seemed to come from nowhere after Jayasuriya's sprightly 65-ball 86, was Smith, who
collected his best analysis outside Twenty20 games with ten overs of modest-looking slow bowling.
It was arguably his most significant contribution on the entire tour. Sri Lanka could perhaps blame
scheduling which had them playing their fifth match inside ten days. Requiring only 222 for
victory, South Africa were again guided home by Dippenaar - but the immediate effect was to
put Australia in the finals.
Man of the Match: G. C. Smith. Attendance: 7,675.