Proteas keep calm to claim T20 series win

Cape Town - The Proteas have sealed the three-match T20 series with a 16-run win against Sri Lanka in the second T20 at SuperSport Park on Friday evening.

As it happened: Proteas v Sri Lanka 2nd T20

Reeza Hendricks and Rassie van der Dussen shared a South African record second wicket partnership against Sri Lanka and Dale Steyn and Chris Morris then both made a double strike with the new ball to put the Proteas well on their way to a series-clinching win.

Victory by 16 runs gave the Proteas a 2-0 series win with just the final match to be played at the Wanderers Stadium on Sunday.

Hendricks (65 off 46 balls, 9 fours) and Man of the Match Van der Dussen (a career best 64 off 44 balls, 4 fours and 3 sixes) set up the Proteas total of 180 with their partnership of 116 in 13 overs.

Once again, Sri Lanka were not able to lay any kind of foundation up front in their reply as Steyn, who went level with Imran Tahir (61 wickets) as South Africa's leading wicket-taker in this format, and Morris tore the top order wide open.

It left Sri Lanka on 47/4 at the end of their power play and things steadily got worse as they subsided to 83/7 at the end of the 14th over.

But, as has happened throughout the white ball section of the tour, they were not going to go down without a fight as long as Isuru Udana was around.

He lived a charm life, being dropped once and then caught off what turned out to be a no ball on review, but there was no denying his power hitting that caused him to break one bat as he hammered his way to an unbeaten 84 off 54 balls (8 fours and 6 sixes).

Sri Lanka needed 72 off the last four overs but without his partners being able to give him much assistance the task proved beyond him with 32 required off the last over bowled by Lutho Sipamla.

Morris had the best bowling return of 3/32 and, in addition to Steyn, there were also two wickets for Tabraiz Shamsi who had the outstanding return of 2/16 from his four overs.

The Proteas gave debut appearances to Aiden Markram and Sinethemba Qeshile with the latter fitting comfortably into the wicketkeeping duties, taking two catches and not conceding any extras.

The third and final T20 gets underway at the Wanderers on Sunday.

Play starts at 14:30.

Scores in brief:

South Africa 180-3 in 20 overs (Hendricks 65, Van der Dussen 64, Malinga 1/26).

Sri Lanka 164 for 9 in 20 overs (Udana 84*, Morris 3/32)

Toss: Sri Lanka

South Africa win by 16 runs