The tourists, restricted to a modest 115-6 after electing to bat, bounced back to stop Sri Lanka at 103-9 in front of a packed house of 30,000 at the Premadasa stadium. Duminy top-scored with 51 off 52 balls to help the tourists recover from a poor start and then grabbed three wickets for 18 runs, earning himself the man of the match award.

It was a morale-boosting win for South Africa over the world's top-ranked Twenty20 side following an embarrassing 4-1 defeat in the last one-day series.