The Lankans gave a remarkable performance in bowling and in the field, and so confident was Sanath Jayasuriya that he didn't bring on his ace bowler Muthiah Muralitharan till the 24th over.

With Boje and Kallis gone in quick succession, Dilhara Fernando and Upul Chandana brought down the scoring rate considerably. In desperation, Ontong jumped down the track to Chandana only to be stumped by Sangakkara. Next ball, Jonty Rhodes guided him towards the third man fence. Mahela Jayawardene not only saved the boundary, but ran out Gary Kirsten (55, 65 balls, 7 fours). Kirsten, who had a life in the previous over when Russel Arnold dropped a sitter, was scampering for the third run.

Boucher tried to paddle Chandana down the leg side, leading edge went up and Sangakkara lunged to take a good catch.

The South African chase had gone haywire, and there was next to no hope of recovery.

Not good portents for the chase, as they had lost a couple of wickets too many. Especially when they had yet to encounter the considerable wiles of Muthiah Muralitharan.

Fernando demonstrated quite succinctly how much of a difference can a wicket or two make. After Herschelle Gibbs (11, 21 balls, 2 fours) was clean bowled by Palsathi Gunaratne trying to pull and missing the line, Kirsten and Boje (who is promoted in the order if the first wicket falls inside the 15 overs) were really motoring along at better than a run a ball.

Boje took a four off Palsathy Gunaratne, and Kirsten bludgeoned three fours, two in the mid-wicket region and the third at long leg, to the same bowler. Boje charged down the wicket to Vaas and clubbed him for a six over long-on. Kirsten hit two more boundaries off Fernando and Vaas in successive overs.

At 69 for one in 13 overs, Proteas were well placed, when Boje failed to read a slower one from Fernando and in trying to loft him over extra cover holed out to Russel Arnold at the edge of the circle.

Kallis drove Fernando for a four in the covers, but then spooned a catch to mid-on. Three for 78, in the 16th over, the South African chase had hit a trough.

Gary Kirsten, not in the best of forms these days, though held the fort. Although there is a surfeit of all-rounders down the line, a whole lot would depend on how Kirsten fares.

But equally important were de Silva's two partnerships of 50-plus with Kumar Sangakkara (41, 57 balls, 5 fours) and Mahela Jayawardene (32, 37 balls, 1 four, 1 six). These stands for the third and fourth wicket not just kept the innings on track, they gave it substance too. And though the last 10 overs were milked for 70 in exchange for four wickets, it was enough to take the target to a sizable 267.

Aravinda, the old war horse, proved yet again that his class and his experience cannot be discounted. Like a maestro, without any fuss or extravagance, he worked the ball into the gaps, making first Sangakkara and then Jayawardene do the same, for singles and twos, occasionally finding the boundary. They had wickets in hand, and though the late charge yielded fewer runs than needed for comfort, in the main because strikers Vaas (18, 14 balls, 1 six) and Chandana (0) couldn't really get it going.

Pollock marshalled his limited bowling rather well, by ringing changes and switching quite often, not allowing the batsmen to become used to any. Though he went wicketless, Pollock bowled well and was backed up by some super bowling by Donald and Kallis, both getting a couple of scalps for an identical 47 runs.

Still, the Lankan performance was pretty consistent, a serious improvement on the show they put against Pakistan on Wednesday. But is it good enough on this good batting pitch with lightning fast outfield? We'd know by the end of the day.

Sri Lanka took time to recover from the twin blows. Only after Kallis and Donald were taken off and Lance Klusener and Nicky Boje came on to bowl, did Sangakkara and Aravinda de Silva get back in their stride.

After a healthy start, of 84 in the first 16 overs, the openers gave it away. Atapattu (35, off 45 balls, 5 fours) was the first to go, missing the line of a Kallis delivery in trying to jab it to the on-side. The leg before decision was not a difficult one for Simon Taufel. The last delivery of the next Donald over was short, fast and wide outside off-stump and Jayasuriya (49, 58 balls, 2 fours, 3 sixes) in an attempt to nudge it to the third man fence only ended up giving a straightforward opportunity to Shaun Pollock.

Once again Jayasuriya had given it away when he seemed all set for greater things.

Two wickets in quick succession, and Sangakkara and de Silva opted for consolidation.

Promoting de Silva to two-down was a good move, for he has the ability to work the ball and is someone around whom others could build the innings; he was totally out of place at No 7 against Pakistan. Sangakkara and de Silva went about the task at hand with the accent mostly on singles. The boundaries were so scarce that there were only five between the 16th and 31st over. And three of them came off the two Boje overs. He was promptly changed after conceding 19 in two overs with Pollock bringing himself on to put the lid on free-scoring.

Sangakkara (41, 57 balls, 5 fours) on-drove Klusener for a glorious four, but attempting another shot in the same region in the air proved his undoing, with Justin Ontong bringing off the catch.

At the end of the 31st over, Sri Lanka was 146 for three. Unless they disintegrate, they have the batting to put up a competitive total to test South Africa's resourcefulness.

The application of skipper Sanath Jayasuriya, who more than anybody in his side is capable of changing the complexion of the game on his own, and Marvan Atapattu was a whole lot better.

It wasn't that Jayasuriya and Atapattu didn't go for their shots. They did, but they were much more judicious in their shot selection. If anything, Atapattu quite uncharacteristically kept finding the boundary more often than he normally does early on. And between the fours and sixes, the value of a sharp single was never forgotten. That prompted a couple of throws at the stumps, but the Lankans rode their luck.

With the first two overs yielding a run apiece, the start was quite circumspect. Then Pollock bowled a short and wide delivery, and Atapattu pounced on it, the drive hitting the boards at the cover boundary. Next over, Roger Telemachus who had been drafted in for Makhaya Ntini, was hit for two identical back to back sixes over gully by Jayasuriya.

The Lankan skipper treated Pollock similarly a couple of overs later, this time the ball sailing over square leg fence and then again went after Telemachus for two similar fours in the covers. Atapattu treated Pollock with badly, smacking him for two fours at mid-wicket and square-leg; the first of these brought up the 50 of the innings.

The Lankans had done the first thing right. They had seen off the first 15 overs without any loss, and at 80, they had scored their runs at a brisk rate too. Jayasuriya was unbeaten at 44 (52 balls, 2 fours, 3 sixes) and Atapattu was at 33 (40 balls, 5 fours).