The

South Africa cricket team The South Africa national cricket team, also known as the Proteas, represents South Africa in men's international cricket and is administered by Cricket South Africa (CSA). South Africa is a full member of the International Cricket Council (I ...

toured Sri Lanka in September 2021 to play three

One Day International A One Day International (ODI) is a form of limited overs cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of overs, currently 50, with the game lasting up to 9 hours. The Cricket World C ...

(ODI) and three

Twenty20 International A Twenty20 International (T20I) is a form of cricket, played between two of the international members of the International Cricket Council (ICC), in which each team faces a maximum of twenty overs. The matches have top-class status and are the ...

(T20I) matches. The ODI series formed part of the inaugural

2020–2023 ICC Cricket World Cup Super League The 2020–23 ICC Men's Cricket World Cup Super League is the ongoing inaugural edition of the ICC Cricket World Cup Super League, a One Day International (ODI) league. The league is taking place from July 2020 to May 2023, and serves as part of ...

. The tour was originally scheduled for June 2020 but the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

put the tour in doubt, with

Ashley de Silva Ashley Matthew de Silva (born 3 December 1963) is a former Sri Lankan cricketer who played in three Test matches and four One Day Internationals from 1986 to 1993. He is, , CEO of Sri Lanka Cricket. De Silva was born in 1963 in Colombo into ...

, CEO of

Sri Lanka Cricket Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) is the governing body for cricket in Sri Lanka. It was first registered with the Sri Lankan Ministry of Sports (Sri Lanka), Ministry of Sports as the Board of Cricket for Sri Lanka (BCCSL) on 30 June 1975 as a national spo ...

and

Graeme Smith Graeme Craig Smith (born 1 February 1981) is a South African cricket commentator and former cricketer who played for South Africa in all formats. In 2003, he was appointed captain of the national team, taking over from Shaun Pollock. He held th ...

, acting director of

Cricket South Africa Cricket South Africa (CSA) is the governing body for both professional and amateur cricket in South Africa. In 1991, the separate South African Cricket Union and the South African Cricket Board merged to form the United Cricket Board of South Afr ...

, both stating that the teams would need plenty of time to train. On 20 April 2020, both cricket boards confirmed that the tour had been postponed due to the pandemic. On 1 August 2020, Graeme Smith confirmed that the tour had been postponed indefinitely, due to scheduling clashes with the

2020 Caribbean Premier League The 2020 Caribbean Premier League (CPLT20) or for sponsorship reasons, Hero CPL 2020 was the eighth season of the Caribbean Premier League, the domestic Twenty20 cricket league played in the West Indies. All matches were played in Trinidad and ...

and the

2020 Indian Premier League The 2020 Indian Premier League, also known as IPL 13 and branded as Dream11 Indian Premier League 2020, was the thirteenth season of the IPL, a professional Twenty20 cricket (T20) league established by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (B ...

. On 30 July 2021, Cricket South Africa confirmed the tour, with all the matches taking place at the

R. Premadasa Stadium The R. Premadasa International Cricket Stadium (RPS) ( si, ආර්. ප්‍රේමදාස ක්‍රීඩාංගනය, ta, ஆர். பிரேமதாச அரங்கம்; also known as Khettarama Stadium, Ranasinghe Prem ...

in a

bio-secure bubble A bio-secure bubble, also known as a bubble, or hub city, was a hosting arrangement for sporting events that emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic, under which events were held at a centralized site, often behind closed doors, with strict quarant ...

. Sri Lanka won the first ODI match by 14 runs. South Africa then won the rain-affected second ODI match by 67 runs to level the series. Sri Lanka won the third ODI by 78 runs to win the series 2–1. South Africa won the first two T20I matches to win the series with a match to spare. South Africa won the third and final T20I by ten wickets to win the series 3–0.

Squads

On 22 August 2021, Sri Lanka Cricket named a preliminary 30-man squad for the tour, with

Dasun Shanaka Madagamagamage Dasun Shanaka (born 9 September 1991) is a professional Sri Lankan cricketer and current limited overs captain of the Sri Lankan cricket team. He generally plays as an all-rounder and is a right handed batter and right-arm medium f ...

retaining his captaincy. Sri Lanka did not name individual squads for the ODI and T20I matches, opting instead to name a combined squad of 22 players for the tour.

Junior Dala Carl Junior Dala (born 29 December 1989) is a South African cricketer. In the 2018 South African Cricket Annual, he was named as one of the five Cricketers of the Year. Domestic career Dala was included in the Easterns cricket team squad for th ...

was ruled out of South Africa's ODI squad after a positive

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

test with

Lutho Sipamla Lutho Sipamla (born 12 May 1998) is a South African professional cricketer who plays domestic cricket for Gauteng. He made his international debut for the South Africa cricket team in February 2019. Domestic career He made his first-class debu ...

named as his replacement. South Africa's captain

Temba Bavuma Temba Bavuma (born 17 May 1990) is a South African international cricketer who currently is the captain of the South African cricket team in white-ball cricket. He also vice-captains South Africa in Test cricket. He is a right-handed batter an ...

was ruled out the rest of the series, after suffering a fractured thumb in the first ODI.

Keshav Maharaj Keshav Atmanand Maharaj (born 7 February 1990) is a South African professional cricketer who plays for the South Africa national team in Tests, One Day International (ODI) and Twenty20 International (T20I) cricket. He is currently the vice-capta ...

was named as the captain of South Africa for the second and third ODIs.

ODI series

1st ODI

2nd ODI

3rd ODI

T20I series

1st T20I

2nd T20I

3rd T20I

Statistics

Most runs (ODI)

Most wickets (ODI)

Most runs (T20I)

Most wickets (T20I)

West Indian cricket team in Sri Lanka in 2021–22 The West Indies cricket team toured Sri Lanka in November and December 2021 to play two Test matches. Originally scheduled to be played in October and November 2022, the tour was brought forward to be played after the 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cu ...

Notes

References

External links

Series home at ESPN Cricinfo
{{DEFAULTSORT:South African cricket team in Sri Lanka in 2021-22 2021 in Sri Lankan cricket 2021 in South African cricket International cricket competitions in 2021–22 South African cricket tours of Sri Lanka Cricket events postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic