'Slinga' Malinga's magic spell almost drowns SA

Georgetown, Guyana, Mar 29 (UNI) Sri Lanka's Lasith Malinga created history by snapping up four wickets in four balls but South Africa's last pair just about managed to hit the winning runs to win the thriller.

In a nail biting finish, 'Slinga Malinga' almost drowned the Proteas in the Caribbean ocean after Graeme Simth's boys seemed to cruise through to a comfortable victory.

But South African batsmen created harakiri, losing four wickets for the addition of just one run to bring a not-so-interesting match to a lively end.

''We did not deserve to win the match. It was Malinga who created the opportunity, picked up four wickets in four balls and missed the fifth by a whisker. But still I think South Africa deserve to win as we did not bat well,'' was the honest admission of Sri Lankan captain Mahela Jayawardene.

''We fell short by 30-40 runs in the match,'' Jayawardene added.

Chasing a modest total of 209 runs, South Africa made heavy weather with Vaas picking up AB de Villear's wicket in the very first over before Muralitharan and Malinga forced Smith's boys to huff and puff towards the end.

However, it was that one magical spell from Malinga which turned the match upside down and nearly got Sri Lanka a miracle victory.

In fact, such was the superlative performance of Malinga, that it actually eclipsed the 86-run knock by Jacuqes Kallis who held the innings together.

Wily operator Murali, however played his part by snapping up the important wickets of skipper Grame Smith, Herschelle Gibbs and Mark Boucher.

''We played well and during the 95 per cent of the match we were dominating but Malinga turned the game around and in the last five over we were almost out of the game. But thankfully we won and this two points were very crucial to us in the Super Eight,'' said Smith in his post match press conference.

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