Sri Lanka were troubled by Dale Steyn’s pace and then the variation of the bowling of Jacques Kallis and Johan Botha as they suffered a six wicket loss to South Africa in their last warm up game at Lord’s ahead of the T-20 World Cup that will get underway on Friday.

After South Africa put the opposition in, it all started well for the Sri Lankans as Tillekeratne Dilshan pulled Steyn for a six over mid wicket off the third ball of the innings, but the very next ball he was deceived by a slower ball to be caught by Herschelle Gibbs.

In his next over, Steyn trapped veteran Sanath Jayasuriya leg before wicket and four balls later Jehan Mubarak unwisely took on Gibbs and ended up being run out.

After Steyn had done the early damage, Kallis and Botha joined the party and put the Sri Lankans under tremendous pressure. Jayawardene went for an ambitious reverse sweep off Botha and saw his off stump flattened while captain Sangakkara was trapped leg before wicket by the same bowler for 17 to leave the Sri Lankans on 40 for six.

When Indika de Saram offered a simple catch to Graeme Smith at mid-off they were struggling at 44 for seven.

An unbeaten 24 in 14 balls by Nuwan Kulasekara with two fours and two sixes and Angelo Matthews (28) took Sri Lanka’s total to 109, but against a strong South African batting line up that wasn’t going to be sufficient.

Yet, Kallis and Smith departed within the first two overs with just seven runs on the board, but some sloppy fielding from thereon let the Proteas off the hook.

Gibbs was dropped twice by Farveez Maharoof in the space of the first ten deliveries he faced, first at square leg and then a regulation catch at extra cover. Then when on 15, Dilshan put down another chance at short cover and he punished the bowlers with 48 runs and added 70 runs for the third wicket with A.B. de Villiers, who made 32.

Malinga came back to remove Gibbs but by then the damage had been done and Jean Paul Duminy (12) and Mark Boucher (8) steered the Proteas through with five balls to spare.

The game against South Africa was Sri Lanka’s last warm up match and now they require to play extremely well. Sri Lanka, who are in Pool ‘C’ will compete against Australia and the West Indies for a spot in the next round and they require to win at least one game to progress further in the tournament.

T. Dilshan c Gibbs b Steyn 6

S. Jayasuriya lbw b Steyn 1

J. Mubarak run out (Gibbs) 8

K. Sangakkara lbw b Botha 17

M. Jayawardene b Botha 3

C. Silva c Boucher b Kallis 1

I. de Saram c Smith b Kallis 5

A. Mathews c & b Morkel 28

F. Maharoof c Duminy b Parnell 11

N. Kulasekara not out 24

I. Udana not out 1

Extras: (b1, lb1, w1, nb1) 4

Total: for 9 wickets 109

Overs: 20

Did not bat: L. Malinga, A. Mendis

Fall of wickets: 1-6, 2-15, 3-16, 4-35, 5-36, 6-40, 7-44, 8-75, 9-97. Bowling: Steyn 4-0-14-2 (1nb), Parnell 4-0-29-1 (1w), Morkel 4-0-35-1, Kallis 3-0-12-2, Botha 3-0-9-2, van der Merwe 2-0-8-0

J. Kallis lbw b Kulasekara 2

G. Smith c Kulasekara b Malinga 1

H. Gibbs b Malinga 48

A.B. de Villiers c Malinga b Udana 32

J.P. Duminy not out 12

M. Boucher not out 8

Extras: (b 4, lb 1, w 5) 10

Overs: 19.1

Did not bat: A. Morkel, R. van der Merwe, J. Botha, D. Steyn, W. Parnell, J. Ontong, R. Peterson.

Fall of wickets: 1-5, 2-7, 3-77, 4-100.

Bowling: Malinga 4-0-21-2 (3w), Kulasekara 3.1-1-13-1, Mendis 4-0-23-0, Udana 4-0-23-1, Jayasuriya 2-0-9-0 (1w), Maharoof 1-0-8-0, Dilshan 1-0-11-0

Toss: SA

Umpires: T. Hill and S. Taufel