South Africa vs Sri Lanka, 3rd ODI at Bloemfontein, , Jan 17 2012 - Match Result

Sri Lanka are 0-3 down with two games to go. The fourth ODI is in Kimberley on Friday, that will be a day-nighter too, so join us at 2 pm local time for that. Siddhartha Talya is updating his match report. That is it from me, Abhishek Purohit. Cheers

Faf du Plessis is the Man of the Match for his eye-catching 72. Faf: "Just nice to get some time in the middle, and the run out as well. There is skill involved but you count yourself lucky when you hit from that angle. I am grateful to AB and Kirsten to give me a chance up the order. It was serious cramping, AB told me its a mental thing and I need to harden up. I tried to but it kept coming and coming. We had AB in the middle still and I thought we could take the game."

AB de Villiers: "I would have liked the game to go the end. I am proud of the boys, we pulled it back with the ball and were solid with the bat, unfortunately there were a couple of run outs. Fielding is part and parcel of ODI cricket and can turn a game on its head. The whole team played really well. I thought the guys stuck to their plans really well. 260-odd wasn't a bad total for us. 300 was on the cards but we pulled it back really nicely. Alviro and Colin did not get too many but they looked good. Faf and JP settled things down nicely."

Dilshan: "Definitely disappointed to lose the series like this. I think we began really well, Mahela's and Sanga's run outs cost us 20 runs and that was the turning point. We also have to improve our fielding, South Africa are much better than us. We had a great chance to win today, with Lasith still having five overs with almost 90 runs to go. We'll try to finish strongly in the last two games."

10.50 pm It's off, finis, kaput. The match has ended. Really unfortunate way for Sri Lanka to lose the series. South Africa win by four runs under the D/L method. Well, someone had to be on the wrong side of the rain, and it cannot be South Africa all the time. They have been at the receiving end since 1992. But Sri Lanka looked like the better team today, they were one wicket away from getting into the SA tail, and Malinga had five overs to go.

10.45 pm Bad news for Sri Lanka, the rain has picked up again. Something tells me that's that

Mak: "It is late in India ! 2.14 now ! im still up hoping to see the latest record...the first ever time rain favoured SA !!! Ah AB ! You do DO IT ALL .. !"

10.30 pm The umpires are having a word with the groundsman. Apparently, it will take 40 minutes for the groundstaff to get the ground ready for play. The Supersopper is coming out now, but it is facing some issues getting started up, says Firdose.

Prithvi: "Wonder how rain can favour South Africa. Its against the laws of nature."

10.23 pm Mopping up operations have started, Firdose informs us. There is a lot of water on the covers, the umpires are having a look, umbrellas in hand. It is still raining a bit

Ritvik: "It's pretty late out here in India.. Have an exam tomo. And I woke my dad and brother out of their sleep to watch this match that looked likely to have a thrilling finish.. It was one over before rain struck. Now I'm being cursed. Wonder who's luck is worse..mine or the Sri Lankans'."

10.15 pm It's still raining, but it has eased off slightly, says Firdose. Cut-off time for the game is 11.26 pm

10.05 pm Still pouring, says Firdose. We'll start losing overs after around 10.30 pm

G&T goes back to 1992: "... and with one ball to go, South Africa now require 22 runs to win ..."

Firdose informs us that there will be an hour's delay allowed before they start docking overs. At the moment, it is pouring though

9.33 pm The rain has picked up and the umpires are having a chat. And they have decided to come off. South Africa are ahead on the D/L score at the moment - 175

Rain, D/L, South Africa, Sri Lanka - here is the scorecard of that 2003 World Cup match