Chester-le-Street (England): South Africa on Friday registered a nine-wicket win over Sri Lanka. After the win, skipper Faf du Plessis said the victory came a "little bit too late" for the Proteas as they are already out of the tournament.
With just six points from seven games, Sri Lanka still has a mathematical chance to be in the semifinals. But for that, they first need to win their last two games against already-eliminated West Indies (on July 1) and India (July 6) and then depend on favourable results from other remaining league stage games.
"Long time coming hey. It was a good game, we did ourselves justice with the talent we have in that dressing room. Set up by a good bowling performance. Dwaine (Pretorius) was exceptional. We've been trying to get him into the XI, but it's a balance thing. The nature of the wicket told me it needed to be straight lines with the ball, and that's why I brought Dwaine and Andile on early," Du Plessis said after South Africa registered only their second win in the competition.
"Line and length was harder to face than pace on that wicket. (This win) feels bittersweet. It doesn't feel like it means that much. It's a little bit too late," he added.
Du Plessis said after seven games, South African batsmen finally managed to put up a decent show with the bat in the World Cup.
"But the basics of batting were shown today. We haven't had guys batting through, and big partnerships, but that was the case today. One big partnership, and suddenly everything seems so much easier," he said.
"Bangladesh was the one that really took the wind out of our sails. England were too good for us on that day. Bangladesh really sucker-punched us in the stomach, and then we took that into the next game, the first week really set us back, but we can't use that as an excuse."
