Former champions Sri Lanka are all but out of the ongoing World Cup after suffering a nine-wicket drubbing against a clinical South Africa, here Friday.
Sent in to bat, Sri Lanka produced a dismal batting show tomanage a modest 203, a target which the Proteas overhauled with 76 balls inhand.
With just six points from seven games, Sri Lanka still havea mathematical chance to be in the semifinals.
First, they need to win their last two games againstalready-eliminated West Indies (on July 1) and India (July 6) and then dependon favourable results from other remaining league stage games.
The win, however, came as a welcome relief for South Africa,who have endured a nightmarish World Cup campaign.
The Proteas are already out of the tournament afterregistering just two wins out of their eight games.
Chasing the modest target, South Africa lost Quinton de Kock(15) at the score of 31 in the fifth over but thereafter Hashim Amla andskipper Faf du Plessis held the fort and stitched an unbeaten 175-run stand toguide the Proteas home comfortably.
While Du Plessis remained unbeaten on 96 off 103 balls,hitting 10 boundaries and one six, Amla finished on 80 not out off 105 ballswith the help of five fours.
Lasith Malinga (1/47) was the only successful bowler for SriLanka.
Earlier, the Proteas picked up wickets at regular intervalsafter the first 10 overs, never allowing the Sri Lankan middle-order settledown.
Drafted into the playing eleven in place of Lungi Ngidi,pacer Dwaine Pretarius (3/25) justified his selection with a three-wicket haul.
Chris Morris (3/46) and Kagiso Rabada (2/36) shared fivewickets between them.
Sri Lanka had a horrible start as they lost skipper DimuthKarunaratne in the first ball of the match, caught by his counterpart DuPlessis at the second slip off Rabada.
Thereafter, Kusal Perera (30 off 34) and Avishka Fernando(30 off 29) took the counter-attacking approach and played fearlessly to stitcha 67-run stand off 58 balls before the duo perished in quick succession.
Right-arm pacer Pretorius sent both the batsmen packing inconsecutive overs as Sri Lanka slumped to 72 for three in 11.3 overs.
New man Angelo Mathews looked in no hurry and took 29 ballsto score his 11 runs before he played on a Morris delivery in the 22nd over.
Kusal Mendis (23 off 51) had to dug deep for his runs beforehe became Pretorius’ third victim, spooning one to Morris at extra cover.Dhananjaya de Silva (24) , Jeeva Mendis (18) andThisara Perera (21) all got starts but threw away their wickets when Sri Lankaneeded them to carry on.