Morkel backs South Africa to get past tricky Sri Lanka and stay in semi hunt

Morkel believes that the Proteas familiarity with Sri Lanka, having played a series against them earlier this year, will stand them in good stead.

“So now South Africa turn their attention to Sri Lanka, who are playing some really good cricket and are definitely a dark horse in this tournament. They’ve got a good bowling attack and they chased down a high score of 172 to beat Bangladesh, so although they lost to Australia, it’s still going to be a huge challenge for the Proteas.

“South Africa can take confidence from the fact they have played a lot of cricket against Sri Lanka and know what to expect from their spin bowlers, so they definitely have what it takes to come out on top.

“It’s going to be a close game and will likely come down to the small margins and whoever does the basics well.”