Sangakkara (48 not out, 80 balls, 3 fours) mostly gathered his runs in ones and two, though he scored an exquisite boundary off Paul Adams at point. On the other end, de Silva (36, 37 balls, 2 fours, 1 six) took a six and a four from the first two overs that he faced off Makhaya Ntini and in between pulled Lance Klusener to square-leg fence.

Having done, this he settled down to his trade mark singles and twos, never letting pressure off the bowlers. The steadiness in their run-scoring can be measured from the fact that the 100 of the innings came in the 19th over and the 150 in the 29th.

Sanath Jayasuriya (47 off 48 balls, 6 fours, 1 six) was on top of the bowling, and seemed set to get to his 50th score of 50-plus when he tried to cut Klusener to fine third man; it was too close to his body and the resulting edge was pouched by stand-in keeper Boeta Dippenaar. But his rapidfire innings had put Sri Lanka on the way to victory.

Lucky to have survived so far, for Paul Adams dropped him off Shaun Pollock when Jayasuriya, Man of the Match in the previous two matches of Morocco Cup 2002, was unbeaten at 47, leading Sri Lanka's charge to their third win in four matches. Sri Lanka were 82 for one at the end of 15 overs.

And as usual, he scored his runs at a fast clip, his 47 runs consumed as many deliveries, with 6 fours and 1 six. With the result that the Lankans were scoring at better than 5.5 runs an over, way ahead of the asking rate of 4.42.

Jayasuriya started off with a boundary to covers in the first Shaun Pollock over, and another square-leg in Telemachus's next . He lost Marwan Atapattu (15, 19 balls, 2 fours) with the total at 40, but he kept batting in his cavalier style.

He picked a fancy for Roger Telemachus (5 for 41, for one wicket), and first he cut him to third man and then sent him for a six to square leg. If he continues in the same vein, the match is likely to finish earlier than usual.

For Sri Lanka, having rested its quartet of main bowlers, it was a commendable achievement restricting the Proteas to this total, asking rate of 4.42 per over.

The Sri Lankan skipper, Sanath Jayasuriya handled his limited bowling resources rather well.

Buddhika Fernando provided two important wickets early on. But then Kallis and Graeme Smith, who had seen Herschelle Gibbs and Gary Kirsten fall to Fernando within the first 25 deliveries, seemed to be scoring freely. He brought on the spinners, and had the gumption to himself bowl two of the last three overs. Though Pollock took two sixes off him as the last over went for 15 runs, he got the wicket of Kallis (84, 125, 7 fours, 1 six).

Kallis, who held the innings together in two good partnerships of 71 and 78 respectively with Smith and Klusener, should have been out at 59 off Aravinda de Silva. As the replays showed, Buddhika Fernando ran and dived forward to scoop the ball with his fingers clearly under it. But third umpire Daryl Harper signaled otherwise.

Anyway, once his two main medium pacers had bowled their spells, Jayasuriya totally relied on Upul Chandana, de Silva and himself, all three consuming their full quota of overs. Chandana was the pick of the three, taking three wickets for 32 runs which really stopped of the flow of runs and the momentum of the innings.

With Sri Lanka having a full compliment of eight batsmen and all-rounders, an absorbing contest is on the cards in this match of otherwise little interest, as the two contestants have already qualified for the final.

Kallis was holding fort unbeaten at 46, off 72 deliveries with five fours.

By the 16th ovr, Kallis and Smith had started finding the boundary too often, and that didn't sit well with Sanath Jayasuriya. Buddhika Fernando had tired out after a longish spell, and first change Hasantha Fernando conceded a boundary apiece to Smith and Kallis. He wasn't given another over, as Jayasuriya pressed into service an all-spin attack, leggie Chandana from the far end and off-spinner Aravinda de Silva from the pavilion end.

The two between them conceded just three boundaries in the next 14 overs, and Chandana provided three vital breakthroughs. With South Africa having a longish tail, the Chandana spell, for its economy and three wickets may turn out to be of critical importance in the context of the result of the match. And once de Silva was taken off Jayasuriya brought himself on.

Smith, clean bowled, was the first of Chandana's three wickets. And he got Boeta Dippenaar, after he had swatted de Silva for a six over long-on, caught by Sangakkara when he tried to cut too close to his body, and Justin Ontong too was smartly stumped by Sangakkara.

With this act of containment along with wickets, the Lankan slow bowlers were on top. To get a competitive total would depend on whether the South African batsmen would be able to break the shackles or not. But Kallis was on the crease with Klusener, and these two could change the complexion of the game on their own.

In spite of fielding a part-time bowling attack, Sri Lanka got a couple of early breakthroughs, Buddhika Fernando delivering both of them. First he found Herschelle Gibbs' edge, with Russel Arnold taking the catch at second slip, and followed it up with Gary Kirsten's scalp, his cross-batted stroke early on ending up guiding the ball to the stumps.

But then Smith and Kallis patiently played themselves in, and Lankan bowling held sway by restricting them to 25 runs for two at the end of 10th over. From here on the progress was rather rapid, and 36 runs came in the next five overs as Smith and Kallis both packed some power and placement in their shots to get five boundaries.

Buddhika Fernando, who had bowled an excellent spell till then, was stroked for three boundaries in the 15th over to give away 15 runs, which spoiled his pretty decent figures, making it two wickets for 35 runs off eight overs.

Kallis clubbed him to covers for four, to raise the 50 of the innings of 88 balls, and then showing his delicate side guided him to the fine third boundary. To add insult to injury, Smith got another boundary on the last ball of the over, at fine leg.

Earlier, Shaun Pollock won his third toss in four games, and as usual elected to bat first. And, why not. After all, every side batting has won and they had defended the lowest total batting first in this tournament, 196 against Pakistan, the other day!

With Sri Lanka and South Africa having already qualified for Wednesday's final, only academic interest remained in this last league match. And both teams exploited it to the optimum to give their reserve players an outing, making four changes apiece.

Sri Lanka rested its entire frontline bowling attack - Chaminda Vaas, Dilhara Fernando, Muthiah Muralitharan, and Pulsathi Gunaratne. South Africans too gave a day-off to Jonty Rhodes, Mark Boucher, Nicky Boje and Allan Donald.