Skipper Faf du Plessis hit an attractive 71 off 60 balls with 10 fours and a six and Reeza Hendricks and Willem Mulder chipped in with useful half-centuries to help South Africa beat Sri Lanka Board XI 63 runs in their one-day warm-up match played at the P Sara Oval yesterday.
It was the Proteas first win on the tour having drawn their two-day warm-up game and then lost the two Tests to Sri Lanka.
Winning the toss and batting first South Africa hit an impressive 293 despite losing Quinton de Kock to the third ball of the innings for a duck and half the side for 125 by the 20th over. But David Miller (40), Hendricks (59) and Mulder (56) made useful contributions down the order to get South Africa to a competitive total.
Sri Lanka Board began their reply badly losing Shehan Jayasuriya for one in the first over before recovering through a second wicket stand of 60 between Dimuth Karunaratne and skipper Dhananjaya de Silva.
Karunaratne continued his Test form into the one-day format by scoring an impressive half century off 57 balls with five fours. De Silva was dismissed for 36.
Sri Lanka lost their way in the middle order and slumped to 140-7 before a stand of 63 between Isuru Udana (53 off 52 balls inclusive of 5 fours, 3 sixes) and Prabath Jayasuriya (21) lifted them to over 200 but they were still quite a long way short of the required target and were dismissed in the 42nd over for 230 falling to the medium-pace of Mulder and the left-arm spin of Shamsi. South Africa will travel to Dambulla to play Sri Lanka in a five-match ODI series starting on Sunday.
Scores:
South Africa 293 in 49.4 overs (F du Plessis 71, D Miller 40, R Hendricks 59, W Mulder 56, Asitha Fernando 2/48, Prabath Jayasuriya 2/46, Nishan Peiris 2/47)
Sri Lanka Board XI 230 in 44.1 overs (Dimuth Karunaratne 50, Dhananjaya de Silva 36, Isuru Udana 53, Prabath Jayasuriya 21, J Dala 2/45, W Mulder 3/12, T Shamsi 3/41)
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