ADELAIDE, Jan 24: South Africa clawed their way to a tense nine-run victory over Sri Lanka on Tuesday to keep their hopes alive in the triangular limited-overs series.

The Lankans, needing 11 to win off the last over ended up at 254-8 in reply to Proteas 263-5.

South Africa were aided by an unbeaten 125 from opener Boeta Dippenaar, his top ODI score, and a sprightly 68 off 65 balls from Gibbs.

The South Africans made a solid, but almost paid a heavy price for failing to hit a four between the 13th and 36th overs.

Sri Lanka suffered an early setback when Jehan Mubarak spooned a Shaun Pollock delivery to Ashwell Prince at mid-wicket with the score at 11.

Sri Lanka seemed on course for victory with a 107-run partnership between Tillekeratne Dilshan and Mahela Jayawardene for the fifth wicket.

But a succession of late wickets, sparked when Bandara was run out for a duck, left them facing a difficult assignment.

Muttiah Muralitharan had earlier made his first big splash in the series, taking two key wickets in succession.

He first removed Graeme Smith and then took his 400th wicket in ODIs when he dismissed van der Wath with the next ball for a duck.

Scoreboard

South Africa:

G. Smith st Sangakkara b Muralitharan 28

B. Dippenaar not out 125

J. van der Wath c Arnold b Muralitharan 0

J. Rudolph c and b Dilshan 11

H. Gibbs b Perera 68

S. Pollock c Atapattu b Kulasekera 8

J. Kemp not out 6

Extras (b2, lb11, w4) 17

Total (5 wkts, 50 overs) 263

Fall of wkts: 1-72, 2-72, 3-101, 4-220,

5-249

Bowling: Vaas 10-1-55-0, Perera 7-0-45-1, Kulasekera 9-1-35-1, Muralitharan 10-0-45-2 (4w), Dilshan 8-0-43-1, Jayasuriya 6-0-27-0.

Sri Lanka:

J. Mubarak c Prince b Pollock 4

S. Jayasuriya st Boucher b Hall 37

K. Sangakkara c and b van der Wath 23

T. Dilshan not out 82

M. Atapattu run out 23

M. Jayawardene b van der Wath 52

R. Arnold b Hall 11

M. Bandara run out 0

C. Vaas c Botha b Pollock 9

M. Muralitharan not out 0

Extras (lb6, w5, nb2) 13

Total (8 wkts, 50 overs) 254

Fall of wkts: 1-11, 2-68, 3-68, 4-117,

5-224, 6-242, 7-242, 8-253.

Bowling: S. Pollock 10-1-51-2, C. Langeveldt 10-0-62-0, J. van der Wath 10-1-37-2, A. Hall 10-1-38-2, J. Botha 9-0-53-0, G. Smith 1-0-7-0

Tri-series standings

(matches played, points).

Australia 4 10

Sri Lanka 4 9

South Africa 4 8 —AFP