Spinners, Atapattu star in Lanka win

Atapattu lead from the front with his 140-ball innings on a difficult batting pitch, hitting eight boundaries and sharing important stands with Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene and Chaminda Vaas.

Sri Lanka were cruising to victory on 111-3 but the loss of Jayawardene (21), Tillakaratne Dilshan (3) and Upul Chandana (6) in quick succession left them on 145-6.

Needing 46 from 54 balls, Atapattu released the pressure with a brace of boundaries off Lance Klusener and with South Africa dropping Vaas twice, Sri Lanka sneaked home.

Pace bowler Shaun Pollock became the seventh bowler in history to take 300 one-day wickets when he had opener Sanath Jayasuriya caught in the gully.

Left-arm spinner Rangana Herath and part-time off spinner Tillakaratne Dilshan starred with the ball for Sri Lanka, taking 6-53 between them as South Africa lost their last seven wickets for 47 runs.

Herath was chiefly responsible for South Africa’s downfall, snapping up three crucial top order wickets to finish with 3-28, while Dilshan mopped up the tail and finished with 3-25.

The tourists, who have now lost eight successive matches, started brightly with a 44-run opening stand after winning the toss, but the innings was slowly throttled by the spinners on a bone-dry pitch.

Brief scores

191 in 50 overs (J Kallis 52, H Gibbs 49; T Dilshan 3/25, R Herath 3/28, K Lokuarachchi 2/23) lost to Sri Lanka: 192 for 6 in 47.4 overs (M Atapattu 97 n.o.; L Klusener 2-36)