South Africa vs Sri Lanka, 3rd T20I - Live Cricket Score, Commentary

Series: Sri Lanka tour of South Africa, 2016-17 Venue: Newlands, Cape Town Date & Time: Jan 25, 06:00 PM LOCAL

AB de Villiers's half-century went in vain © Cricbuzz

It was an exciting T20I series and credit to Sri Lanka for coming back as strongly as they did. They will be eager to take the momentum into the ODI series but it will be a different ball game and against a different South African setup. Five more matches remaining in the series. Hope they will be as entertaining as the T20Is were.

Gunaratne's premature celebrations made for a hilarious moment but Sri Lanka held their nerve, with Gunaratne scoring two boundaries off Paterson and hitting the winning single. The visitors won the final T20I by five wickets with a delivery to spare to clinch the three-match series 2-1. This was also Sri Lanka highest successful chase and their first ever series win in South Africa in any format. A remarkable comeback considering they were 0-1 down after being whitewashed in the three-match Test series.

Prasanna is turning it in Sri Lanka's favour. They need 11 off the final over. Phehlukwayo concedes 15 off the penultimate over, including a six and a four by Prasanna.

Only seven runs off the 18th over, including a leg-bye. Paterson hold his nerve under pressure. Over to Phehlukwayo now. 26 more needed off 12.

After two terrific overs, the scales again tilted as Wayne Parnell delivered an expensive over, conceding 19 runs, which included two sixes and four off Prasanna's bat. 33 now needed of 18.

Tahir's strikes helped South Africa fight back ©AFP

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Hello and welcome to the Live Blog for the third T20I between South Africa and Sri Lanka. It is the deciding match of the T20I series and the stage is set for AB de Villiers to do what he does best. After a seven-month hiatus, Superman is set to return to international cricket. And the timing couldn't be better. An inexperienced South African batting order was exposed by a sprightly Sri Lankan attack, which ensured a series decider in Cape Town. The presence of de Villiers, who is fresh off an unbeaten 134 off only 103 balls in a List-A game, comes as a big boost for the home team, which is hoping to extend Sri Lanka's agony on the tour.

After four losses in a row across the Test and T20 formats, Sri Lanka finally managed to register a win on their South African sojourn but they lost a key member of the team in the process. Skipper Angelo Mathews, who suffered an injury while seeing his team through during the chase in the previous game, is heading home, as are pacer Nuwan Pradeep and batsman Dhanuskha Gunathilaka. This puts an added pressure on Dinesh Chandimal, the experienced batsman in the line-up, who will also have to lead the team in the final T20I of the series.

Meanwhile, there will also be some focus on a couple of young bowlers, who have made several heads turn their way during the series with their fine performances. South Africa's Lungi Ngidi, a 20-year-old right-arm pacer, has returns of 2 for 12 and 4 for 19 from the two matches, while Sri Lanka's Lakshan Sandakan, a 25-year-old chinaman bowler, picked up 4 for 23 on debut to help Sri Lanka level the series on a surprisingly slow wicket at Wanderers. The two will be hoping to continue their impressive run and set up an engrossing contest in Cape Town.

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