One Day Triangular, 1st match played at Harare Sports Club: South Africa A 269 for 9 (Hendricks 87, Ontong 75) beat Sri Lanka A (Parnell 3-10, Kleinveldt 3-15) by 161 runs

South Africa A opened their account in emphatic style when they beat Sri Lanka A in the opening Triangular one day match at Harare Sports Club on Friday.
South Africa A's total of 269 runs for the loss of nine wickets was thanks in the main to a fifth wicket stand of 152 between Reeza Hendricks who top scored with 87 and Justin Ontong who chipped in with a well compiled 65.

Sri Lanka A's decision to bowl appeared to be a good one as Dean Elgar, Richard Levi, Colin Ingram and South African A skipper Faf du Plessis were all back in the change room with just 65 runs on the board.

But Hendricks and the experienced Ontong then went about rebuilding the innings in a most impressive manner. Both batters curved their naturally aggressive instincts and rotated the strike with good running between the wickets, as well as capitalising on anything with width.

Hendricks struck nine fours in his 90 ball innings of 87 before being bowled by Lakshitha, Ontong was then run out for 65 which then saw SA A lose their way somewhat as they tried to up the tempo.

Sri Lanka A got off to a poor start and never recovered as the pace and bounce extracted by the South African A fast bowlers proved to much for them to handle as they were bundled out for 107 in just 28-5 overs.

Rory Kleinveldt was the pick of the bowlers with figures of 3-15 from six overs, while Wayne Parnell and Kyle Abbott also weighed in with figures of 3-10 and 2-25 respectively.

Sri Lanka A will be hoping to bounce back when they meet hosts Zimbabwe A in the next match which will be played at the same venue on Saturday.