Puttick steers South Africa A to win

South Africa A 170 for 4 (Puttick 84*, de Bruyn 45*) bear New Zealand A 169 (Marshall 32) by six wickets
Scorecard

South Africa A produced another impressive performance as they completed a comfortable six-wicket win against New Zealand A in Colombo. After routing Sri Lanka A by 10 wickets on Wednesday the South Africa bowlers were again on form, constantly chipping away at the New Zealand batting. Andrew Puttick guided South Africa home with a composed 84, in a stand of 99 with Zander de Bruyn.

It was a team effort from the South African with the six bowlers each taking a least a wicket apiece. Dale Steyn, Tyron Henderson and Johann van der Wath troubled the top order and New Zealand couldn't creat a solid foundation to build from. Matthew Sinclair and James Marshall battled hard but Robin Peterson and Johan Botha claimed a brace each to stifle any thoughts of a fightback.

New Zealand's predicament was highlight when Jamie How was introduced as the Supersub and he managed to hold the tail together with a grafting 31 from 50 balls. But Steyn claimed his second wicket as New Zealand failed to use up their full allocation of overs.

New Zealand were determined to make a game of it and their seamers exploited the same assistance that their South African counterparts had enjoyed. Daryl Tuffey struck twice and at 39 for 3 the game was suddenly thrown wide open. However, Andrew Puttick, a compact left-hander, settled in to anchor the innings and when the new-ball threat had disappeared batting became easier. De Bruyn provided the attacking imeptous and the target was knocked off with almost 15 overs remaining.