South Africa cruise home in final

South Africa A 217 for 4 (Rudolph 68, Ontong 54*) beat New Zealand A 216 for 7 (Papps 106*, Henderson 3-29, Morkel 3-24) by 6 wickets
Scorecard

Jacques Rudolph and Justin Ontong guided South Africa to a convincing six-wicket win in the final of the Sri Lanka A Team tournament in Colombo. Rudolph's 68 and Ontong's unbeaten 54 ensured South Africa eased to their target of 217 with more than seven overs to spare.

The result was cruel on Michael Papps who batted throughout the New Zealand innings for 106 off 130 balls. However, he lacked support from the rest of the line-up, with Chris Harris's 33 the next highest score.

Tyron Henderson made early inroads for South Africa after they had inserted New Zealand. He bowled his ten overs for just 29 runs, while the three wickets were instrumental in reducing New Zealand to 90 for 4 in the 22nd over.

Papps and Harris rebuilt the innings with a stand 67 but the early wickets meant they were unable to take many risks to increase the scoring rate. When Harris was trapped lbw by Jan Botha, Gareth Hopkins contributed a sprightly 25 off 18 balls. But Albie Morkel's 3 for 26 restricted the late-order charge and New Zealand managed just 15 fours and two sixes in their 50 overs.

Despite the early loss of Andrew Puttick and the pinch-hitter Johann van der Wath with 37 on the board, South Africa were always ahead of the required rate. Rudolph and Loots Bosman added 78 for the third wicket then Ontong joined in a stand of 53.

When Rudolph fell - caught behind off James Franklin - the target was insight for South Africa. Ontong was now well set and Zander de Bruyn accompanied him while the final runs were knocked off with plenty of overs to spare.