South Africa skipper AB de Villiers believes his side’s recent experience of shorter-over matches in England helped them to victory in Saturday’s seven-over game with Sri Lanka in the T20 World Cup.
The rain-affected game was reduced to seven overs each way, with de Villiers playing a big part with 30 off 14 balls as South Africa set 4/78.
In reply, the hosts never got going ending up 5/46 with Dilshan Munaweera and Kumar Sangakkara both reaching 13, as Dale Steyn picked up 2/10 off his two overs.
“We spoke about what we learned from England and it was fresh in our minds when we went out,” de Villiers told reporters after the shortened match.
“I think that definitely helped. The guys were on the button from ball one.”
Sri Lanka skipper Mahela Jayawardene said: “In a seven-over game you have to throw caution and just try and get bat on ball, which we didn’t do.”