Proteas stay alive

South Africa has kept its Champions Trophy aspirations alive after walloping Sri Lanka by 78-runs in Ahmedabad.

Batting first, the Proteas raced away to 219-9 as AB de Villiers (54) and Jacques Kallis (43) took centre-stage with the willow.

Having lost to New Zealand in its opening fixture, South Africa needed to overcome a highly-favoured Sri Lanka outfit to remain in title contention.

Despite having batted well on yet another favourable bowling surface, the Proteas pacemen were the true match-winners as they set about dismantling Sri Lanka.

Eventually, following some impressive work from Shaun Pollock (2-21), Makhaya Ntini (2-24) and Andre Nel (3-41), Sri Lanka crumbled to be all out for 141.

In order to move through to the semi-finals, the Proteas must beat Pakistan in their next outing.

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka, on the other hand, is now precariously poised to be bumped out and will only survive if Pakistan wins its remaining matches. Even then, though, the Sri Lankans will not progress unless their run-rate is better than New Zealand and South Africa's.

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