Although they tackle Pakistan at the Kimberley Country Club tomorrow, Sri Lanka's batting tactics, which served so well in the World Cup two years ago, was split for yesterday's game against South Africa where they came a real cropper in the Wanderers bullring.
Arjuna Ranatunga was not too happy with the team's batting performance where they failed to ignite from the start of the innings. In the past it has been Sanath Jayasuriya and Romesh Kaluwitharana's explosive hitting power which has launched their innings with the mecurial Aravinda de Silva acting as the main support at four in the order.
But when De Silva and Jayasuriya fell within four overs of each other the steam went out of the normally volatile Sri Lanka batting and they were unable to pick up the momentum again.
South Africa, with four points in the bag now have a break until they meet Pakistan in East London on saturday, a match which Hansie Cronje admits could be a much tougher game because of the low, slow quality of the surface. At the Wanderers tnher is far more bounce.
Whether he would have batted first had the match been against the West Indies, next season's opponents, is a debateable point. The pitch carried a little grass but was soft underneath.
``I always have had confidence in out attack in this game against Sri Lanka yesterday,'' Cronje said. ``Steve Elworthy and Roger Telemachus came back superbly and we were always on top from that point of view.
``We now have to make sure that we keep on winning the way we have so so we can reach the final,'' he added.
``We have a 15 man squad, which is a large squad and will try and rotate the players as much as possible,'' he confirmed. ``As you can see, it is far from an experimental squad. We have players of experience and we know their capabilities.''
As for the 25-year-old Telemachus he enjoyed the experience of knocking over the Sri Lanka tail to take man of the match award, and felt the way he controlled bowling the yorker helped him demolish the what challege was left in the Sri Lanka side.