As it happened - South Africa vs Sri Lanka, Men's T20 World Cup, Super 12s

At points you thought they weren't being aggressive enough. Was Bavuma batting too slow? Was Markram holding too much in reserve? But they took the game deep and backed their finishers.

Hasaranga's hat-trick seemed to have turned it Sri Lanka's way, but where Kumara lost his nerve, the experienced Miller just waited for balls in his arc, and those two massive successive sixes decided the match.

That's it! That's probably it. Kumara puts it into the slot once, Miller launches it into the next Emirate. Then Kumara puts another ball into the slot - looking for that yorker probably (could he have tried something else?). This is more legside, and a little fuller. It doesn't matter. Miller gets the leg waay out of the way and hammers this out of the ground as well.

But then he gets a single off the next ball, and Rabada is on strike with one to get off two balls. Rabada swishes his bat at it, and it goes off the top edge to the boundary.

That's the game. What a fantastic final over for South Africa. Kumara's inexperience shows. Incredible finish.

Shamsi had got 3 for 17, but as one of Hasaranga's overs had come at the death, this is probably the bowling performance of the match. South Africa need 25 from 12.

If Shamsi can get three wickets, so can I, says Hasaranga. What's more, I'll get 'em off three successive balls.

Pretorius tries to slam his first ball over long on, and picks out the fielder instead.

As Hasaranga had taken a wicket off the last ball of his third over, this is a hat-trick. He'd already got one in ODI cricket, on debut. He's turning this game around too.

(He almost gets four in four, you know. He hit Rabada right in front of the stumps with the googly, but the ball juuust pitched outside leg, which saved Rabada.)

That's the worst ball Hasaranga has bowled. He's dragged it down, and Bavuma has laid into it. But what's this? He's picked out Pathum Nissanka at deep midwicket, who takes a fantastic overhead catch.

Could Bavuma be playing a gem here? After South Africa get just one run off the first three balls of the 17th over, bowled by Chameera, Bavuma picks up a length ball on the pads and hits it WAAAAAAAAAY over deep midwicket for six.

They get two off the next one, and another single off the last, and that's 10 off the over, and 31 required from 18. South Africa might have nudged ahead again.

One Hasaranga over left. Two more from Chameera. Theekshana will bowl the next one.

How big's that wicket going to turn out to be? Markram hit a four off the previous delivery, mowing Hasaranga to cow corner with the slog sweep, but then, next ball, Hasaranga slips in a quick googly - his primary wicket-taking delivery. Markram goes back trying to chop it to the off side, but the ball clatters into the stumps.

Shamsi's had a great year, but so has Hasaranga, who has two overs left. (These stats are from before today's game began.)

Accordingly, the run rate - which was 7.15 to start with, has gone up to over 8.6.

Sri Lanka are the blue line. South Africa are red.

After a 10-run over from Chamika Karunaratne, the teams are virtually on top of each other at the halfway stage of the chase. But this was when Sri Lanka lost their way a bit against Shamsi. South Africa have not yet lost a wicket to Sri Lanka's ace bowler - Hasaranga. Though they've only got seven from his first two overs.

Dasun Shanaka might be having a terrible tournament with the bat, but he's having a wonderful one in the field. This time he gets van der Dussen with a direct hit running in from cover, with one stump to aim at. Bavuma, who is struggling to get the ball away, bunts one towards cover and initially seems to call Rassie through. But Shanaka moves on it quickly, throws down the stumps, and though by this stage van der Dussen is trying to backtrack, he's waaaay out of his ground. Superb work in the field.

Sri Lanka needed a really good Powerplay, and they sort of got it. Here comes Hasaranga though. His four overs could go some way to deciding this game.

As if he heard us talking the Lankan quicks down, Chameera first skids a fast delivery into the back pad of Reeza Hendricks and gets an lbw decision, before bouncing no less a batter than Quinton de Kock out two balls later (De Kock top-edged an attempted pull and Chameera had enough time to get under the catch himself). It's a fantastic over, and one that has brought Sri Lanka roaring into the game.

This from our stats guru Shiva Jayaraman:

Taking pace off the new ball on tired pitches has helped fast bowlers in this World T20. Pacers have taken 41 wickets at 22.3 and have had an economy of 6.13 in the Powerplay overs. In comparison, in the UAE leg of the recently concluded IPL, pacers averaged 37.03 runs and conceded runs at an economy of 7.6 an over in the Powerplays. In the PSL, their average and economy were 33.20 and 7.27 respectively. So possibly, the slow pitches are helping fast bowlers as much as they are helping spinners.

This is where Sri Lanka’s fast bowlers have perhaps missed a trick. They have bowled some of the fastest balls in this World T20, but have taken just three wickets between them at an average 54 – by far the worst for any team that has played more than one match in this series. Their economy of 7.36 is also the worst. Sri Lanka pacers are the only ones among these teams to concede runs at more than seven runs an over in the Powerplay in this tournament. Dushmantha Chameera has conceded 80 runs from ten overs in exchange for his one wicket in the Powerplay. Lahiru Kumara has one wicket from his six overs in the Powerplay. These two Sri Lanka pacers have the worst averages and economies for any bowler who has bowled at least five overs in the Powerplay in this World T20. In contrast, Sri Lanka spinners have bowled just eight of 30 Powerplay overs, but have taken eight of the 11 wickets taken by Sri Lanka bowlers at a measly average of 5.12.

Maheesh Theekshana, Sri Lanka's mystery spinner, had been excellent in the qualifying stage, taking eight wickets in three matches. But after having gone wicketless in the match against South Africa (he was pretty economical however), South Africa have started off nicely against him, taking 10 from his first over.

Sri Lanka really need him to be among the wickets today.

Anrich Nortje pegs back Dushmantha Chameera's middle stump, and they get a run out as the tailenders attempt a bye off the last delivery, and Sri Lanka are bowled out. South Africa will back themselves to chase this total. However, West Indies did defend exactly this total against Bangladesh yesterday, at this very ground.

He took the vital wicket of Nissanka in his third (and last) over too, dismissing him for 72 off 58.

This is some innings from Nissanka, who before this tournament, wasn't known for his domestic T20 exploits let alone internationals (he's much more of a long-format player). But having bided his time through the early overs and the middle, he's now taken Kagiso Rabada apart. The six over deep midwicket was fantastic, but the shot of the over was probably the advancing four, smoked through extra cover.

He keeps losing partners though. Karunaratne's out now.

He hit one good inside-out boundary off Nortje, edged Pretorius past the keeper, and then holed out to Kagiso Rabada at deep cover, to collect another poor score - 11 off 12 balls.

It took him 46 balls to get there, though perhaps he would have been more aggressive if his teammates had not stumbled around him. A mature innings from Sri Lanka's youngest batter.

They've got a ton to do in the last five, though. And Dasun Shanaka has not been in good nick at all.

Shamsi gets the wicket of Wanindu Hasaranga in his last over, and finishes with his best figures of this World Cup so far - figures of 3 for 17.

Just as with Australia, following that decent second-wicket partnership, there has been no partnership of substance after South Africa's spinners have come on. Avishka Fernando is the latest to go, providing an easy return catch to Shamsi - his second in the space of three overs.

As the table above shows, no team in the Super 12 has been worse against spin (of all sorts) than Sri Lanka, since the start of 2018. They've got the worst average against spin (18.9), and only just avoid having the worst strike rate (105.52).

Uh oh. Is this the dreaded middle order collapse? Such a feature of Sri Lanka batting performances against teams with good spin attacks. That was a stock ball from Shamsi, which pitched outside off and turned away. Leftie Rajapaksa tried to play that into the legside, and ended up giving a leading edge, which Shamsi reached for and snatched.

Finally, some serious aggression from Sri Lanka, after Maharaj and Shamsi had built up a little bit of pressure in their first overs.

Asalanka first bashes Maharaj over deep midwicket and juuust clears a leaping Kagiso Rabada. Later in that same over, Nissanka slog sweeps him also, just beating an outstretched fielder.

But then, they try to run two to the rocket arm of Rabada late in the over, and Asalanka is caught short by an outstanding throw, that comes in just at the base of the stumps. That's incredible fielding from Rabada. A foot further away from the stumps and Asalanka would have made it.

Not an outstanding Powerplay. Particularly as Sri Lanka have tended to struggle against spin in the middle overs. Here comes the left-arm spin of Keshav Maharaj. Tabraiz Shamsi can't be far away either. Sri Lanka have struggled against both recently.

Kusal Perera's modest tournament continues, just as Anrich Nortje's good one gets better. This is a length ball at 144 kph right on middle stump. Perera backs away and tries to swipe it through leg, but that's seamed a tiny bit, and middle stump is knocked to the ground like a boxer who's had his lights punched out.

Sri Lanka could ill-afford that, by the way. It's been a slow start, with only two boundaries in the Powerplay so far.

South Africa all take a knee against racism before the first ball is bowled, with de Kock joining everyone else from behind the stumps.

Sri Lanka are one of the few teams to not make any sort of gesture whatsoever, by the way. Months ago, their board instructed their players not to make any gestures, because, (and this is not a joke) they felt cricket an politics should be kept separate. This from a board that must have all their selections ratified by the country's sports minister, and frequently works with the government to achieve their ends.

Daasun Shanaka, had this to say about the issue on the day before this game: "In Sri Lanka we don’t have that kind of problem. We don’t need to take that kind of stance. We’re a country that works together peacefully. In our team that’s how we work anyway. We’re not going to do anything especially."

If you haven't been following the drama around de Kock, and South Africa's differences of opinion on how to signal their support for the global anti-racism movement, you can catch a quick recap in our preview.

Better yet, Firdose Moonda's much more in-depth column on the issue from a few days ago.

No surprises with either XI. Quinton de Kock, who sat out the last game as he was unwilling to abide by the board's kneeling mandate in support of anti-racism, has had a change of heart and slots right back into the XI. He displaces Heinrich Klaasen who had taken the gloves in his stead.

Sri Lanka go with the same XI that lost to Australia, resisting the temptation to fiddle with their attack.

No surprises that Bavuma has opted to field first. It seems to be a SERIOUS advantage at this World Cup.

Though, both times that teams batting first have won, have been at this ground - Sharjah.