Dane van Niekerk struck an unbeaten 70 to guide South Africa to a nine-wicket win over Sri Lanka and a 2-1 women's T20 international series victory in Colombo. Set a target of 133, Van Niekerk and Trisha Chetty put on 94 for the opening wicket in 15.3 overs and Lizelle Lee blitzed an unbeaten 22 off 12 to haul South Africa home with a ball remaining.

When Chetty fell for a run-a-ball 39, South Africa needed 39 off 27. Shashikala Siriwardene gave away just six off the 17th over to make it 31 required off 18. Van Niekerk stepped up with successive fours off Ama Kanchana in the 18th and Lee took two more off Udeshika Prabodhani in the 19th. Lee finished the game with successive twos off Kanchana in the last over followed by a four off the penultimate ball of the match. Van Niekerk was at the other end on 70 off 68, with seven fours and two sixes, following up on her match-winning all-round show in the second T20.

Sri Lanka had posted 132 for 6 after choosing to bat, Prasadani Weerakkody top-scoring with 48 off 45. Chamari Atapattu provided the initial burst with 24 off 16, while Eshani Kaushalya contributed 29 off 20. Shabnim Ismail and Marcia Letsoalo picked up two wickets each for South Africa.
(Cricinfo)