General News: South Africa's tour to Sri Lanka to include ODIs, one-off T20I

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South Africa's three-Test tour of Sri Lanka in August 2018 has been reworked into a two-Test series accompanied by a five-match ODI series and a one-off T20I, both Cricket South Africa and Sri Lanka Cricket confirmed through a release on Wednesday (April 4).

The revised tour will begin with the Test series first, with the two games scheduled in Galle and Colombo from July 12 and July 20 respectively.

"This will be a very important tour for us," said CSA's acting CEO Thabang Moroe. "We have a lot of exciting, young players coming into our side in all three formats and, with so much of our international cricket being played on the subcontinent these days it is important they get used to those conditions as soon as possible.

"Many of them have played very little cricket over there and indeed some none at all. For instance, we can look forward with tremendous anticipation to the performances of our leading Test match spinner, Keshav Maharaj, who has yet to play a Test on the subcontinent," he added.

The ODI series begins in Dambulla on July 29 while the tour will conclude with a solitary day-night T20I fixture on August 14.

"The ODI series forms an important part of our team preparation for next year's 2019 ICC World Cup in England," Moroe noted. "Sri Lanka have always provided very tough opposition under their home conditions and I am sure this tour will be no exception. We are all looking forward to some very competitive cricket," he concluded.

South Africa will arrive in the island country on July 4 and will also play a two-day practice match at the P Sara Oval in Colombo, starting July 7, ahead of the Tests. The venue for their one-day warm-up game, scheduled for July 26, is yet to be confirmed by SLC.

South Africa's itinerary:

July 4: SA arrive in Sri Lanka

July 7-8: Two-day practice match, P Sara Stadium, Colombo

July 12-16: 1st Test match, Galle

July 20-24: 2nd Test match, Colombo

July 26: One-day warm-up match, venue to be confirmed

July 29: 1st ODI, Dambulla (day match)

August 1: 2nd ODI, Dambulla (d/n)

August 5: 3rd ODI, Kandy (day match)

August 8: 4th ODI, Kandy (d/n)

August 12: 5th ODI, Colombo (d/n)

August 14: T20 International, Colombo (d/n)

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