Lanka beat Safs by three wickets

Marvan Atapattu and Avishka Gunawardene scored half-centuries as Sri Lanka snatched a thrilling three-wicket win against South Africa in the...

Marvan Atapattu and Avishka Gunawardene scored half-centuries as Sri Lanka snatched a thrilling three-wicket win against South Africa in the first one-day international on Friday.

Sri Lanka, set a stiff 264-run target after Jacques Kallis had top scored with 74 and Mark Boucher had chipped in with 58, won with an over to spare when young all-rounder Kaushal Lokuarachchi smashed a leg-side six to seal victory.

All-rounder Chaminda Vaas won the man-of-the-match award for his 4-33 earlier in the day, which he followed up with 18 priceless runs in the final tense overs. There had only been one higher successful chase at the venue in 68 matches and Sri Lanka started badly with pace bowler Alan Dawson bowling Sanath Jayasuriya for 12.

BRIEF SCORES:

South Africa:

263-9 (Smith 38, Kallis 74, Boucher 58, Vaas 4-33) lost to Sri Lanka: 265-7 (Gunawardene 51, Atapattu 64, Ntini 2-46)

EXCLUSIVE: EC brings in feature to check misuse of identity to seek voter list deletions

Political Pulse3 hr ago

The Election Commission has launched a new 'e-sign' feature on its portal and app to prevent fraud. This comes after allegations of misuse of online voter deletion forms in Karnataka. The feature requires voters to verify their identity using their Aadhaar-linked phone numbers, reducing the possibility of fraud.

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