Christchurch, Feb 9 (IANS) South African pacer Kyle Abbott has admitted their chase against Sri Lanka in the warm-up game here Monday got a bit too close for comfort as they beat the Asian islanders by 5 wickets with 3 balls to spare via the Duckworth Lewis (DL) method.

The 27-year-old said they were "counting every run" as an old enemy "rain" played peek-a-boo with the teams.

"We came into the warm-up games with a fairly open mind to get guys out in the middle but as soon as the game got to a tight stage, it was amazing how you could feel the change room shift. We were counting down every run," Abbott said.

"It was so good to get some competitive cricket out of a warm-up game which can drift and become quite boring. The guys were behind every run and we wanted to win it as much as any other game," he added.

In 1992, South-Africa lost in the semi-finals to England due to the unavailability of the DL method then. A 12-minute rain delay revised the target for the South Africans, who needed 22 runs of one ball.

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Saurabh Sharma
An ardent cricket fan, Saurabh is covering cricket for last 12 years. He has started his professional journey with the Hindi publication, Navbharat Times (Times of India Group). Later on, he moved to TV (Sadhna News). In 2014, he joined Cricketnmore. Currently, he is serving as the editor of cricketnmore.com. His grasp on cricket statistics and ability to find an interesting angle in a news story make him a perfect fit for the online publishing business. He is also acting as a show producer for our ongoing video series - Cricket Tales, Cricket Flashback, & Cricket Trivia Read More
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