Hobart: Sri Lanka's Malinga Bandara lived up to the title of super sub as he took four wickets for 31 runs to send South Africa out of the triangular series tournament at Hobart's Bellerive Oval on Tuesday.
The South Africans surrendered what a week ago had seemed like a certain place in the best-of-three finals against Australia, losing their last seven wickets for 68 to go down by 76 runs.
Sri Lanka had earlier set them a modest total of 257-9 on an excellent batting track after getting off to a solid start.
It was South Africa's third straight loss and it came on the day that captain Graeme Smith finally found some touch.
Smith reached his first half-century of the series, making 67 off 76 balls, but was let-down miserably by the rest of his team.
Herschelle Gibbs and the big-hitting Justin Kemp both scored ducks while Mark Boucher with 24 and Ashwell Prince (22) made starts but couldn't press ahead.
While Bandara claimed four valuable wickets, it was veteran paceman Chaminda Vaas who made the big breakthrough, trapping dangerman Boeta Dippenaar LBW for nine just two balls into the seventh over.
Three balls later he sent back Gibbs, who spooned a catch back to him for 0.
In the end, the absence of injured key strike bowlers Andre Nel, Makhaya Ntini and Jacques Kallis for most of the series proved too much for South Africa to carry.
All-rounder Andrew Hall who took 3-50 and the economical Shaun Pollock with 1-35 worked hard to fill the gaps and were well supported by Johan van der Wath and Charl Langeveldt with 2-41 and 2-47 respectively.
The main glitch was an expensive 0-32 off three overs by the inexperienced Dale Steyne, who was subsequently subbed for spinner Johan Botha.
It allowed the Sri Lankans to settle in to a good start, although their lower order proved brittle.
Sri Lankan coach Tom Moody said the super-sub rule had paid dividends for his team after Atapattu left the field with a back injury.
"We opted today to add depth to the bowling. We were fortunate enough to win the toss and be able to do that," he told ABC radio.
"He's (Bandara) bowled well all series and particularly well today. He's a much-improving young bowler and Sri Lanka hopefully have got a good one up their sleeve there."
Asked if Sri Lanka could beat Australia in the finals, Moody was confident.
"We can certainly give them a run for their money, there's no doubt about that," he said.
A downcast Smith said his tiring team had simply been outplayed.
"I think 250 was probably 30 runs too many," he said.
"The wicket slowed up a lot in the afternoon which made chasing 250 very difficult. Overall we were outplayed in a lot of departments today, especially the basics," Smith added.
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