Crunch time in Colombo as Sri Lanka, South Africa clash in decider

Sri Lanka will try to scratch a seven-year itch in the third ODI against South Africa at the R. Premadasa Stadium in Colombo on Tuesday. The visitors will hope to go to the happy place they've been to five times during those seven years.

You have to rewind to August 2014 to find the last series in the format that Sri Lanka clinched by winning a deciding last match. That's more than seven years ago, and since then they've won only six of their 26 ODI rubbers all told. Most of their losses in that time have been comprehensive or something like it: only against Zimbabwe in June and July 2017 and against India in December that year did the rubber go down to the wire, and of course the Lankans lost both times.

The month before Sri Lanka's 2014 success over Pakistan, South Africa earned a 2-1 win on the Asian island having taken a 1-1 scoreline into the third match, in Hambantota - the first of five ODI rubbers they have won from then by prevailing in a decider. Among them is a home series against England in February 2016, when South Africa lost the first two games before reeling off a hat-trick of victories. After that trip to Sri Lanka in 2014, they have won 17 of their 23 rubbers, and lost just twice when the issue has been in the balance in the last match - against Bangladesh in July 2015 and Pakistan in April this year.

And here we are, on the cusp of another decider. Avishka Fernando's 118 powered the