9.20pm SA secure their 13th successive win at home in ODIs. Oh boy! they seem unstoppable. A clean sweep will carry them to the No.1 ranking. SL, who had not topped 200 until this match, made a proper fist of a 368 chase. Thranga and Dickwella gave the visitors a rollicking start; the SL captain went onto hammer a 73-ball hundred - his 14th in ODIs - but the lower-middle order simply fell away in the slog overs. SL lost their last six wickets in just 28 balls to be dismissed for 327. Do stick around for the presentation.
Tharanga: We needed to get a good start. Someone had to get that start for us. It was a much-better batting performance. Till the last 10 overs, we were in the game. It is a really good wicket. Credit to Faf and AB, they batted really well. There is little turn for the spinners. Our main concern is batting, this was better, hopefully we do well on Friday.
De Villiers: The batting was great. Faf played an exceptional knock. Great be there in the middle with him. You don't often get such days. Very happy for Faf. Fudgie chipped in with clean hits. It was a bit slow in the afternoon than it was in the evening. It sped up in the later stages of the game and well done to the groundsman. Tharanga played well. There was not a lot of panic, I was pleased with the variety in the bowling. We wanted to hold KG back a little bit and bowl him in shorter spells. He was nice and fresh and when I needed him most at the end he was there. It is tricky changing the side, the guys were motivated. I am prod of the performance tonight.
Du Plessis, Man of the Match: It is going okay. When you're in good touch, you make sure you score big runs. There was something in for the bowlers - some bounce. De Kock took pressure off me. Then the innings was about risk management. My blueprint of scoring is eliminating dots. Then AB is brilliant with running between the wickets. Not once [did you think about the 200?]. If you bowl a good back of a length slower ball, it was difficult to hit and I holed out. I will take 185 and pretty grateful for that.
Sri Lanka finally turned up, and showed plenty of fight, despite the late slide. Hope you enjoyed the game as much as we did bringing it to you. Thanks for tuning in, be back for the final ODI. Goodbye and good night for now
Raees : "Collectively South African team has more than 64 Centuries vs 13 centuries for Sri Lanka , that's from a single batsman . Played with the most inexperienced cricket team in last two decades. I will take this as a win for us :) Well played boys. Let's make it 4-1 "
Aayush: "This match's first maiden comes in 98th over of the match, resembles how good game this has been"
PADLR Sandakan b Parnell 1 (5m 2b 0x4 0x6) SR: 50.00
END OF OVER:48 | (maiden) | SL: 327/9 (41 runs required from 12 balls, RR: 6.81, RRR: 20.50)
- Lahiru Kumara1 (7b)
- Lakshan Sandakan1 (1b)
- Kagiso Rabada9-1-50-2
- Wayne Parnell9-0-58-3
SD: "Believe it or not: The 98th over of a 7 rpo match is a maiden."
Two slips in place, by the way
END OF OVER:47 | 2 Runs 1 Wkt | SL: 327/9 (41 runs required from 18 balls, RR: 6.95, RRR: 13.66)
- Lahiru Kumara1 (1b)
- Lakshan Sandakan1 (1b)
- Wayne Parnell9-0-58-3
- Dwaine Pretorius8-0-55-2
No.11 Sandakan
LD Madushanka c Pretorius b Parnell 6 (9m 8b 1x4 0x6) SR: 75.00
END OF OVER:46 | 8 Runs 1 Wkt | SL: 325/8 (43 runs required from 24 balls, RR: 7.06, RRR: 10.75)
- Lahiru Madushanka6 (4b)
- Dwaine Pretorius8-0-55-2
- Imran Tahir10-0-76-2
SS Pathirana c †de Kock b Pretorius 1 (10m 3b 0x4 0x6) SR: 33.33