[Sports] - Steyn and Gibbs set up six-wicket win

South Africa made heavy weather of chasing down Sri Lanka's disappointing total of 109 for 9 in their final warm-up match at Lord's ahead of next week's ICC World Twenty20, but they eventually eased home with five balls and six wickets to spare, thanks largely to a third-wicket stand of 70 between Herschelle Gibbs and AB de Villiers.

Having been drawn in the toughest group, alongside West Indies and Australia (whom they face in their opening fixture at Trent Bridge on Monday), Sri Lanka will need to raise their game considerably if they hope to progress in the competition. After batting first they were reduced to 44 for 7 at the halfway mark of their innings, as first the pace of Dale Steyn and then the variations of Jacques Kallis and Johan Botha proved too much for their disorientated batsmen.

Then in reply, despite being given a flying start by Lasith Malinga and Nuwan Kulasekera, who claimed the big wickets of Graeme Smith and Kallis in the first nine deliveries of South Africa's innings, Sri Lanka let the game slip away from them with a spate of dropped catches. Gibbs was missed twice by Farvez Maharoof in the space of his first ten balls - the first a fizzer at square leg, the second a regulation spoon over extra cover - and then again on 15, when Tillakaratne Dilshan at short cover couldn't cling onto an inside-out drive.

They were mistakes that Sri Lanka could ill afford, given how poorly they had batted earlier in the day, and though both de Villiers and Gibbs fell with the victory in sight - the latter bowled by the returning Malinga for 48 from 53 - the remaining 10 runs were easily hunted down by JP Duminy and Mark Boucher.