Kuhn, Elgar lead South Africa A to victory

South Africa A cruised to a seven-wicket victory against Sri Lanka A at the P Sara Oval on Saturday to maintain their unbeaten run in the triangular A team tournament that also features Pakistan A.

Both teams had already qualified for Monday's final, so South Africa coach Corrie van Zyl took the opportunity to experiment by blooding CJ de Villiers and promoting Heino Kuhn to opener.

Kuhn, the 24-year-old Titans wicketkeeper- batsman, responded with a fine hundred, and shared a 102-run partnership for the third wicket with the in-form Dean Elgar, the tournament's highest run-getter. He eventually fell prey to Sachitra Serasinghe's offbreaks but Elgar and Colin Ingram made sure there would be no more hiccups as they chased down their target with 17 balls to spare. Elgar's 79 came off 91 balls, with four fours and three sixes, while Ingram took just 30 balls for his 45 that included six fours and a six.

Sri Lanka chose to bat after winning the toss and set South Africa a target of 255. Their innings was built around opener Tharanga Paranavitana's unbeaten 116, which came off 139 balls with seven fours and two sixes, and Jeevan Mendis gave the selectors another reminder of his usefulness lower down the order with a brisk 43.