South Africa vs Sri Lanka, 1st ODI at Gqeberha, , Jan 28 2017 - Match Result

Right then. That brings an end to our coverage for this game. We have hd an early finish today. What will the remaining games have in store? If Sri Lanka's performances in the T20 series were anything to go by, they very much have the capability of pushing this South Africa side and beating them. Can they find a way to turn it around in the coming games? Join us next time then. Thank you for your time, and goodbye!

Imran Tahir: Very happy with the way it came out. Very good, pleasing day for me and the team. Just a believer that I need to keep doing it every game, and for that, I have been working really hard. I don't take any game lightly. Playing for South Africa is really special. Today is very special because it is my wedding anniversary. My wife asked me to get five wickets and this is absolutely for her. I think I was bowling against the wind which was obviously easier for the batsmen to hit me. But i always look to bowl according to the field. Somehow I get my wickets but I try not to give runs and try and use my variations. It was a great team effort, the fast bowlers started very well and I had a chance to do the job for South Africa, which is an honour for South Africa. Every wicket I take for South Africa, I try to express how much it means to me when I celebrate. I play for a great country and a great team and I want to continue doing it for as long as I can.

Imran Tahir is the Man of the Match.

AB de Villiers I thought it was a really good performance. It was a difficult wicket to get used to, low, slow and a bit two-paced. But we used our chances really well, great bowling performance to set it up for our batters. Our new-ball bowlers bowled with a lot of intensity and Immy (Imran Tahir) bowled really well. I have had a few windy games before in my life, so I just relied on my experience from those games and it paid off really well today. There is more than enough time, Russell and I keep talking about plans and there is also Faf to bounce ideas off. It's a tricky total always. It was definitely below-par, I thought 250-260 would have been easy to chase down, but it could still have been tricky. But Quinton and Faf got off to a good start and it set things up nicely for the remaining batters. Easy win today, but we expect them to fight back in the series.

Upul Tharanga: I think Chandimal and Mendis had a partnership, but we could never pick up from the two wickets at the start. It's about spinners, the wicket was slow. Our spinners did not control the ball much, lots of areas to improve on the batting and bowling fronts. We have a couple of days to sit together as a team and have a chat about what we can improve. Like I said, both batting and bowling, lots of areas to improve.

4.45 pm All set for the presentations then.

4.38pm Sri Lanka have been utterly demolished here. They were never in the game, right from the time Wayne Parnell set the tone with his twin early strikes. Imran Tahir hastened the slide with three strikes in 15 balls, and from there, South Africa never looked back. A total of 181 was never going to be enough and there were no surprises during the chase. Sri Lanka's spinners did occasionally find a way past the edges of South Africa's batsmen but South Africa had the luxury of taking their own time given the small target. Early wickets were going to be the only way for Sri Lanka to try and make a game of this, but once Quinton de Kock and Hashim Amla got off to a steady start, it steadily shut the doors on a Sri Lankan fightback. Hashim Amla was calm and languid as ever, all silken tough and grace as he stroked his way to a fluent half-century. Faf du Plessis may not have been as pretty, but played an equally effective innings. And AB de Villiers got in some good match batting practice on his ODI return. Stay tuned. We will bring the presentations to you shortly.

A: "@Vishaal SA may have played a depleted side but Sri Lanka's 'full strength' team is a side full of newcomers each with a handful of games under their belt. I would say there wasn't much difference between the sides, SL did well to win the series and yes, they should have won all three games with their very raw side."

Kusal Mendis now comes on.

Vishaal: "@PraveenP - it doesn't hold weight to state that you could have whitewashed a side when you are at almost full strength and they were playing a side that had less than half their regular players. That's the point being made here."

Nelisa: "AB is such a pleasure to watch. He's crickets Lionel Messi"