RSA VS SL - 5th ODI, Sri Lanka tour of South Africa, 2019

Drubbing. Annihilation. Mockery. The adjectives can continue on loop mode and still not do justice to the gap that SA created between themselves and the visiting Lankan team. The hosts dished out clinical blows one after the other and completed the 5-0 whitewash tonight. The floodlight failure was a bit of a dampener but most importantly is there a gleam of light left for Sri Lanka ahead of the WC? We hope so. Kumar Abhisekh Das in company of Akshay Maanay and Mukesh wishing you bye bye!

Faf du Plessis: Went well tonight. Really proud of the guys. Felt we got better and better. We have been good with bilateral series. We want to get better with preparations for the WC. I always love chatting to the bowlers. Our bowling has been excellent. The x-factor has been our ability to get wickets. I think the squad is settled. We still need to confirm the squad may be next month.

Quinton de Kock, Man of the Series: I think just the manner in which I have been able to contribute has been pleasing. Nice to come out and contribute for the team. Obviously I am feeling good about my game. For IPL and WC, I feel I have a lot more (runs) left in the tank. It is only 50 overs to keep and I think I should be fine (when asked about only one keeper being selected for the WC).

Aiden Markram, Man of the Match: It is a good feeling. The bowlers set it up for us. To restrict them for less than 250 was a great job. I tried to push through the initial tough phase. The ebbs and flows of international cricket is really interesting. I am taking it day by day (when asked about WC selection). It is about doing good things day in and day out.

Lasith Malinga: We tried hard. We did not get many runs with the bat. I feel the batters have realised what they need to do. Isuru and Kusal Mendis did really well. The bowlers did well. Had we got a couple of wickets, anything could have happened. All the boys tried to fight hard. We have senior players injured. We have a local tournament ahead of the WC. That will be important. We are looking forward to do our best in the T20Is.

0-5 defeats in bilateral ODI series since WC 2015:
4 Sri Lanka
2 Australia
1 Pakistan/ Zimbabwe

Earlier in the day, the Lankans lost early wickets, lost momentum in the middle and scuffled for a quick finish to end with 225. Again, a quickfire knock from Isuru Udana gave them a fighting score. But the visitors hardly turned up with a fight and two dropped chances early on didn't help matters much. Indeed not a great way to be bidding good byes to fantastic players and even better human beings - Imran Tahir and JP Duminy. SA will miss you! For the rest of the cricketing world, they still will perform at the upcoming WC!

South Africa set a target of 226 started off losing their man-in-form QDK with almost nothing on the scoreboard. But then Markram hungry for big runs ahead of the WC got the runs going and alongside Faf steadied the ship. The skipper got himself caught behind after a string of dot balls but Rassie van der Dussen came in and kept turning the scoreboard over. Markram got to his fifty and when the Proteas seemed on course for an early finish, one of the floodlight tower refused to glow up. The umpires had to take the players off the field and that was it. Darkness ended SL's misery. 5-0 is a result which speaks out loud how appalling the visitors have been.

So, no further is going to be possible and that too after a frustrating wait of close to 2 hours. SA have won this by 41 runs thanks to the DLS method as they needed to be 94 at this stage after 28 overs.

20:11 Local Time, 18:11 GMT, 23:41 IST: Cricket South Africa have tweeted: Technicians are working on getting the lights back up and running. No overs have been lost yet.

19:19 Local Time, 17:19 GMT, 22:49 IST: And the inevitable has happened. Bad light has stopped play. One of the floodlight towers was not getting switched on and hence we have to go off. They will try to switch off the towers completely and get it back on to come up with a solution. We will get you all the updates as and when we have them. SA remember need 91 more to win this and make it 5-0. Lanka don't seem to have any answers for the moment being. May be the uncalled break might help.

Malinga to van der Dussen, no run, and again lot of pace on it and bounce as well on that short ball. van der Dussen looks to fetch it from well outside off and misses

Malinga to van der Dussen, no run, little bit of pace on that short ball and van der Dussen bails out of the pull at the last moment

Malinga to Markram, 1 run, smacked that! Waited for the short ball, got into position off the front foot and slammed the pull for the ball to land on the bounce to find deep square leg

Malinga to van der Dussen, 1 run, is late on the shortish ball and gets it off the shoulder of the bat on the on-side for a single

Malinga to Markram, 1 run, slower delivery and has been steered to deep third man for a single

Malinga to van der Dussen, 1 run, length delivery on the pads and has been picked off it for a single

Lasith Malinga [5.0-0-18-1] is back into the attack

Dananjaya to Markram, no run, stays behind the line of the ball and blocks it with a dead straight bat

Dananjaya to van der Dussen, 1 run, and the ball holds on to the surface a bit and the punch goes aerial between the cover fielder and the bowler for a single