South Africa clinch series success

Quick-fire centuries from Quinton de Kock and AB de Villiers saw South Africa rally to a convincing 82-run win - and 2-1 series triumph - over Sri Lanka in the third and final one-day international on Saturday.

Left-hander De Kock smashed a 127-ball 128 while skipper De Villiers struck all of 11 fours and a quartet of sixes en route to an entertaining 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 in Hambantota.

The Proteas then restricted the hosts to 257 in 44.3 overs for their first-ever ODI series win on the island.

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, 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 (2) 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.

Sri Lanka skipper Mathews was left to rue missed chances.

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

The teams now play a two-Test series starting at Galle from July 16.