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Sellout crowd awaits postscript match of the tour
Tuesday, 14 August 2018 - 17:00 | Views - 518

It could not be more obvious that this game is the hasty post-script to to the tour. The two Tests came first and were always going to be taken very seriously. The five-match ODI series took 17 days to complete, because at least one of the teams wanted to have three days in between matches, to recover and prepare. This game is shoehorned in at the back-end, set to begin less than 48 hours after the last ODI was completed. Sri Lanka had a light training attended by only five players on match eve, and had made two late changes to their squad, instructing legspinner Jeffrey Vandersay and seamer Shehan Madushanka to stay with the emerging team currently involved in a limited-overs series elsewhere on the island. They have drafted in quicks Kasun Rajitha and Isuru Udana in their places. South Africa, who have not named a separate T20 squad, and will just pick from their ODI squad, did not train at all.

And yet - here's something that lays out just how beloved the format is by the in-ground spectator - this is the only match of the whole tour that will be played to a completely packed audience. On the eve of the match, SLC was all out of tickets. Colombo residents were making inquiries on the black market, and buying themselves new replica kits. With two years left until the World T20, the teams may not be taking this very seriously, but fans do not care.

As far as T20 form goes (insofar as form actually exists in a format that is infrequently played), South Africa may have a slight edge, having won three of their last five matches, to Sri Lanka's two. But then they are without two of their best bowlers in the format, with Chris Morris and Imran Tahir both elsewhere. With Sri Lanka riding a little wave of confidence following wins in the last two ODIs, perhaps the teams go into this evenly matched.

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