{"id":6604,"date":"2012-01-03T13:11:58","date_gmt":"2012-01-03T11:11:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/01\/cricket-sri-lanka-ask-south-africa-to-bat-in-series-decider\/"},"modified":"2012-01-03T13:11:58","modified_gmt":"2012-01-03T11:11:58","slug":"cricket-sri-lanka-ask-south-africa-to-bat-in-series-decider","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/cricket-sri-lanka-ask-south-africa-to-bat-in-series-decider\/","title":{"rendered":"Cricket-Sri Lanka ask South Africa to bat in series decider"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"articleLocation\">CAPE TOWN<\/span> Dec 3 (Reuters) &#8211; Sri Lanka captain<br \/>\nTillakaratne Dilshan won the toss and sent South Africa in to<br \/>\nbat in the series-deciding third and final test at Newlands on<br \/>\nTuesday.<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Pace bowler Dilhara Fernando has a knee injury and has been<br \/>\nreplaced by fellow seamer Dhammika Prasad, while Sri Lanka have<br \/>\nchosen opening batsman Lahiru Thirimanne for the first time in<br \/>\nthe series, ahead of Tharanga Paranavitana.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>South Africa have retained struggling batsman Jacques<br \/>\nRudolph but have shifted him down the order to number six, with<br \/>\nAlviro Petersen coming in to take over as opener.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Despite taking eight wickets on debut in the second test,<br \/>\nfast bowler Marchant de Lange has been omitted to make way for<br \/>\nseamer Vernon Philander, who has recovered from injury.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Sri Lanka recorded a maiden win on South African soil in the<br \/>\nsecond test to even up the three-match series at 1-1.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Teams<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>South Africa: Graeme Smith (captain), Alviro Petersen,<br \/>\nHashim Amla, Jacques Kallis, AB de Villiers, Jacques Rudolph,<br \/>\nMark Boucher, Vernon Philander, Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel, Imran<br \/>\nTahir.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Sri Lanka: Lahiru Thirimanne, Tillakaratne Dilshan<br \/>\n(captain), Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene, Thilan<br \/>\nSamaraweera, Angelo Mathews, Dinesh Chandimal, Dhammika Prasad,<br \/>\nThisara Perera, Rangana Herath, Chanaka Welegedara.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>(Reporting by Ken Borland; Editing by John O&#8217;Brien; To<br \/>\ncomment on this story email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)<br \/>\n\u00a0 <span class=\"label\"><strong>Continued&#8230;<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>CAPE TOWN Dec 3 (Reuters) &#8211; Sri Lanka captain Tillakaratne Dilshan won the toss and sent South Africa in to bat in the series-deciding third and final test at Newlands on Tuesday. Pace bowler Dilhara Fernando has a knee injury and has been replaced by fellow seamer Dhammika Prasad, while Sri Lanka have chosen opening [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-6604","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6604\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}