The Proteas, who won the toss and elected to bat first at the R Premadasa Stadium, could just never seem to gain any momentum as they lost wickets at regular intervals to eventually be bowled out for 98 runs.

Sri-Lanka were then tasked with chasing down the visitors lowest score in T20 International cricket which they did in 16 overs and with 3 wickets to spare.

The performance was one that Proteas coach Ottis Gibson lambasted for a lack of clear thinking and decision making.

"We sat down and spoke about the style of play that we wanted, we talked about being positive, taking the game on, taking the game forward but within that comes clear thinking."

"I question our thinking more so than anything else, I don't think that there was enough clear thinking," Gibson said.

The Proteas now return to South Africa where they face neighbors Zimbabwe in a series of 3 ODI’s and 3 T20’s from the 30th of September.