Sri Lanka defeat South Africa to lift Morocco Cup

Sri Lanka held their nerves to capture the Morocco Cup beating South Africa by 27 runs Wednesday. South Africa, chasing 236 for victory, looked dead and buried when they slumped to 91 for six in 26 overs. But a gritty 101-run seventh wicket partnership from 112 balls between Boeta Dippenaar and Mark Boucher brought the Proteas within striking distance.

However, when 44 runs were required off 39 deliveries, Dippenaar tried one shot too many to hole out to Mahela Jayawardene off Pulasathi Gunaratne. But as always when one wicket leads to some more, the remaining three wickets fell in a space of 20 balls for the addition of 16 runs with Boucher being the last man out with nine balls remaining.

While Dippenaar anchored the innings and scored 53 from 98 balls with two fours it was Boucher who threatened Sri Lanka's control with busy innings of 70 from 65 balls with four fours and two sixes.

The gutsy wicketkeeper swept the ball with perfection and played innovative pull shots to leave stand-in captain Marvan Atapattu bewildered.

South Africa wrote their own demise when they lost six wickets inside 26 overs with the scoreboard reading 91.

Muralitharan bowled Nicky Boje in his first over and then added the wicket of Roger Telemachus to finish with two for 35. But it was Gunaratne who picked up the vital wickets of Dippenaar and Boucher to end up with two for 38. Chaminda Vaas removed Herchelle Gibbs (6) and Graeme Smith (15) conceding 33 runs from his 10 overs.

Gibbs was smartly held at mid-off by Sri Lankan skipper Sanath Jayasuriya. But, in the process, the left-hander injured his right shoulder.

Jayasuriya, who was adjudged man-of-the-final, played his role to perfection when he first won the most important toss and then slapped 10 fours and a six in his run-a-ball 71 to provide his team another flying start. But Sri Lanka, who were 167 for two in 32 overs, failed to capitalize from the ideal platform and could add only 68 runs from the remaining 18 overs as they lost wickets at regular intervals.

In the last 10 overs, Sri Lanka added 43 runs while between the 30th and 40th overs, they just added only 37 runs for the loss of three wickets.

Lance Klusener, Allan Donald and Nicky Boje masterminded South Africa's fight back when they equally shared six wickets between them. However South Africa's strategy to not open the bowling with Donald or Kallis alongside Shaun Pollock proved disastrous.

Roger Telemachus, who shared the new ball, allowed the Sri Lankan openers to settle down when he went for 36 runs in his four overs with Jayasuriya alone scoring 28 with five fours and a six.

Besides Jayasuriya, who also picked up the Man-of-the-Tournament award, Kumar Sangakkara chipped in with a 54-ball 40, 47-ball 33 by Aravinda de Silva and 25 off 40 deliveries from Marvan Atapattu who put on 78 under 15 overs with his skipper.

It was Sri Lanka's second title since they beat Pakistan in Sharjah in April 2001.

The Sri Lankans, who trailed 10-14 against South Africa before the start of the competition, also reduced the gap to 13 wins against 14 loses.

Meanwhile Jayasuriya could miss next month's ICC Champions Trophy after suffering an injury against South Africa.

Jayasuriya scored an explosive 71 after winning the toss and batting first but dislocated his right shoulder after falling awkwardly taking a catch.

Sri Lanka team physiotherapist Alex Kontouri replaced the dislocation on the field but later confirmed that the injury was serious following a scan at a local hospital.

"There is ligament damage. He will have another scan when we return to Sri Lanka but at this stage I would say he is only 50-50 for the Champions Trophy," Kontouri told reporters.