Andile Phehlukwayo: "We owed win over Sri Lanka to the country"

South Africa can finish no higher than sixth in the 10-team ladder, having won just twice in eight games so far

Andile Phehlukwayo has admitted that Friday’s victory over Sri Lanka was a necessary consolation after a disappointing tournament for South Africa.

The Proteas can finish no higher than sixth in the 10-team ladder, having won just twice in eight games so far.

However, a nine-wicket thrashing of Dimuth Karunaratne’s Sri Lanka side provided a reminder of the talents of a line-up stacked with world-class names. Hashim Amla finished unbeaten on 80, while Faf du Plessis was left four runs short of a hundred.

“We needed to win after a few sad performances,” Phehlukwayo admitted. “We owed it to the country and we owed it to ourselves.

“We’ve been working really hard and it just hasn't been going our way.”

Phehlukwayo himself has been a positive for his side, taking nine wickets and scoring 129 runs at an average of 32.25. He was not required to bat at the Riverside, though he took the wicket of Thisara Perera with the ball. 

“A performance like that was long overdue to show that we are not just giving lip service to the things we are saying and we can do it,” he added.

“We’ve just been short at times. We’re are not far off. It’s just in patches that we’ve lost the game and that’s something in international cricket you can’t do or you don’t win games.

“You need to win those patches in important games and if you don’t it becomes really tough and you are chasing the game all the time. And you don’t want to be chasing the game.

“You want to be either on par or ahead of the game. That’s something we haven’t been very consistent in at this tournament. Hopefully, that’s something we will take with us and learn from.”

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