South Africa 129 for 4 (Boucher 44*, Kallis 38*) beat Sri Lanka 128 (Jayawardene 31, Pollock 4-18, Ntini 3-22) by 6 wickets
Scorecard

South Africa set out their stall in the first of five one-day internationals against Sri Lanka, romping to a six-wicket victory with than 20 overs to spare. On a green-tinged pitch that Shaun Pollock later described as being unfit to host the World Cup final, Sri Lanka succumbed to their familiar shortcomings, as Pollock, Makhaya Ntini and Allan Donald devastated their batting with accurate spells of fast bowling.

Sri Lanka slumped to 30 for 5 in 13 overs, and though they staged a recovery of sorts, their total of 128 never looked enough. They did their best to make life hard for South Africa's batsmen, who at one stage were a rocky 56 for 4, but when the icily cool Jacques Kallis was joined by Mark Boucher, the win was sealed with a blaze of boundaries. Boucher finished with 44 not out from 50 balls, while Kallis continued his extraordinary run of form with 38 not out from 58. He's now scored 417 runs at 139 in his last six international innings.

Picking up where they had left off in the Test series, Pollock and Ntini shared the early Sri Lankan wickets. Marvan Atapattu fell to a sharp catch by Boucher off Ntini for 1 in the second over (3 for 1), Jehan Mubarak was trapped lbw in Pollock's third over (6 for 2), and when Sanath Jayasuriya slashed at a widish offering outside off from Ntini and was caught just inside the third-man fence by Boeta Dippenaar, Sri Lanka's innings was in tatters at 10 for 3.

Pollock struck twice more in his first spell, removing Kumar Sangakkara for 7 (25 for 4), and Aravinda de Silva for 12, again to a good catch from Boucher, before Mahela Jayawardene and Russel Arnold patched up the innings with a sixth-wicket stand of 65. Arnold, however, ruined his good work by chipping Ntini tamely to Andrew Hall at mid-on (95 for 6), before Jayawardene fell to a stunning one-handed catch in the gully by Herschelle Gibbs off Donald. The ball, fiercely cut, had almost passed Gibbs before he had time to realise what he had pulled off (104 for 7). The tail subsided meekly, although Chaminda Vaas stuck around for an unbeaten 19, clobbering a brace of fours in the process.

Although they were missing Muttiah Muralitharan (who is resting his hernia ahead of the World Cup), Sri Lanka struck back hard. Herschelle Gibbs fell to Vaas in his very first over, and Graeme Smith was caught behind off Pulasthi Gunaratne for 3 (11 for 2). Then, when Prabath Nissanka picked up two wickets in four balls to see off Boeta Dippenaar and Justin Ontong, South Africa were in a spot of trouble. It was only a spot, however.

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