The first ball screamed past the edge of Peterson's bat; the second found the edge, and scorched a way to the third man boundary - and suddenly, anti-climactically, it was all over.

It was a brilliant late fight back powered by Lanka, from a position where most teams would have given up and gone through the motions. Malinga, in particularly, bust a lung with that last titanic effort - you have to think long and hard before coming up with another such spell of sustained, fearsome pace.

But in the final analysis, the Lankans paid a price for their woeful batting at the death - they were always 30-40 runs below par, and for all their heroics, they didn't have enough in the bank to nail down the game.

South Africa earn the full two points, and make up for the defeat to Australia in the preliminary phase. Sri Lanka has two, and the best run rate in the Super Eights at this point - but against that, they know they missed a huge victory, against the number one team in the world, by a whisker.

Sri Lankan progression: Overs 26-50
30 overs: 153/2 @5.10 (Kallis 60/68; Gibbs 27/43)
35 overs: 169/4 @ 4.82 (Kallis 69/84; Gibbs 2/5)
40 overs: 186/5 @ 4.65 (Kallis 78/96; Pollock 1/7)
45 overs: 206/7 (Kallis 85/108; Peterson yet to bat)

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