South Africa shuffles deck to find winner against Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka's opening batsman Upul Tharanga dives safe as South African Jean-Paul Duminy tries to run him out.

South Africa trotted out a new line-up and claimed a five-wicket win over Sri Lanka despite an unbeaten 92 from Dinesh Chandimal in the second one-day international in East London on Saturday.

Chandimal hit six fours in his 115-ball knock to help the tourists to 236 for six, but that total rarely looked enough as the hosts, backed by JP Duminy's 66 not out, reached 237 for five with eight balls to spare.

Duminy credited the revamped line-up in which he was the No 4, with AB de Villiers and Faf du Plessis behind him.

"We wanted to be more flexible than we usually are," he said.

"So between myself, AB and Faf, we thought we will mix it up a bit and today was my chance.

"We always knew we'll get there as long as we had wickets, and that's what happened."

The win gave the Proteas a 2-0 lead in the best-of-five match series.

The hosts' reply got off to a strong start as Graeme Smith (28) and Hashim Amla (55) put on 76 for the first wicket before the captain became the first of Dhammika Prasad's three victims.

Smith was caught at midwicket by Upul Tharanga and Prasad then bowled his fellow opener Amla, playing across the line.

Jacques Kallis and Duminy put on 58, but Chandimal caught Kallis at deep extra cover for 37 as Prasad made another breakthrough.

De Villiers was run out following a 17 and Lasith Malinga had Du Plessis caught and bowled for 18, but Duminy, whose knock came off 87 balls, and Albie Morkel (12no) saw South Africa home.

Sri Lanka were looking to recover from their humiliating 258-run defeat in the first ODI, and things looked ominous when they lost the captain, Tillakaratne Dilshan, for a duck and star batsman Kumar Sangakkara for three.

The hosts struck in the second over as Dilshan was run out attempting a quick single and, when Sangakkara edged a Lonwabo Tsotsobe delivery behind to De Villiers, the Sri Lankans were 21 for two.

Chandimal steadied the side with Tharanga (66) as they put on 84 for the third wicket.

The pair took the score to 105 before Morne Morkel did for the latter, De Villiers again taking the catch.

Morkel struck again to remove Mahela Jayawardene, who was caught at fine leg by Dale Steyn for 19.

Nuwan Kulasekara hammered 22 off 13 balls, including two sixes and two boundaries, but he became Lonwabe Tsotsobe's second victim, caught at mid-on by Robin Peterson.

Angelo Mathews made a useful 28 before Morne Morkel caught him at mid-off off Steyn, but the total proved insufficient.

Dilshan said: "We were 20-25 short in the batting. First 25 overs we didn't get enough runs … At the moment, everything is going wrong for me. Hopefully the next match will be good. Tharanga and Chandimal batted really well, which is a positive sign."