SOUTH AFRICA v SRI LANKA

At Wellington, March 2. Sri Lanka won by three wickets. Toss: Sri Lanka. None the worse for a 15-hour journey from Queensland, the Sri Lankans won their first meeting with South Africa to occupy third place in the table. The South Africans included the slow left-armer Henry (their first non-white player), while Hudson lost the opener's job to Kuiper. They made slow progress; Wessels took 94 balls for his 40, and though Kirsten pushed the score on, the last nine wickets went for 81 in 15 overs. Ramanayake conceded only seven runs in his first seven-over spell. The fielding was also impressive, especially that of Jayasuriya in the covers, who dived to dismiss Rushmere and leapt high to catch Rhodes one-handed. Donald quickly reduced Sri Lanka to 35 for three, but he and his colleagues contributed 17 wides and no-balls. Meanwhile, Mahanama became the first player in the tournament to reach 200 runs. He fell at 154, but Ranatunga saw his team home, and danced off the field with Ramanayake when the tailender struck the winning runs.

Man of the Match: A. Ranatunga. Attendance: 3,815.