De Kock, De Villiers star in South Africa’s series win

Left-hander De Kock smashed a 127-ball 128 while skipper De Villiers hit a fiery 71-ball 108, making a century off just 66 balls, as South Africa posted their highest total against Sri Lanka of 339-5 in windy conditions at Mahinda Rajapaksa Stadium.

The Proteas then restricted the hosts to 257 in 44.3 overs for their first-ever one-day series win on the island by 2-1.

South Africa had won the first one-day in Colombo by 75 runs while Sri Lanka claimed the second by 87 at Pallekele.

Sri Lanka, who needed their record one-day chase, had promised a positive chase by smacking 57 in the sixth over with Kusal Perera (37) and Tillakaratne Dilshan (30) but a middle order slump saw them lose Dilshan, Kumara Sangakkara (36) and Mahela Jayawardene (two) in the space of just six runs.

When Lahiru Thirimanne went for 22 to make it 151-5, Angelo Mathews (58) and Ashan Priyanjan (30) put up some resistance during their 83-run stand but the target proved too much for the hosts.

For South Africa paceman Ryan McLaren took 3-37 while Jean-Paul Duminy and Morne Morkel grabbed two wickets apiece.

De Villiers, who lost a one-day series in Sri Lanka 4-1 last year, was delighted with the victory.

‘I am very happy over the win,’ he said. ‘It’s our first series win here so we will celebrate it tonight.’

Sri Lanka skipper Mathews was left to rue missed chances.

‘It was very depressing,’ said Mathews. ‘We were pretty flat on the field, let go a few chances and didn’t bowl well so we didn’t deserve to win.’ 

Earlier De Kock put on 118 for the first wicket with Hashim Amla (48) and another 116 for the second with De Villiers as South Africa improved on their previous highest total of 317-6 against Sri Lanka at Centurion in 2002.

De Kock, dropped at 38 off Sachithra Senanayake, reached his fifth one-day hundred with a sharp single off 108 balls. The talented left-hander holed out at mid-off in the 41st over but not before bettering South Africa’s highest individual one-day score against Sri Lanka made by Boeta Dippenaar (125 not out) at Adelaide in 2006.