Andile Phehlukwayo is relishing role as a death bowler

Phehlukwayo took 3/45 against Sri Lanka in the second one-day international of the series. His spell helped South Africa restrict the hosts to 244, which was chased down with four wickets in hand.

Phehlukwayo’s performance was encouraging, especially as it followed a less successful outing in the previous game, when his three overs went for 30 wicketless runs.

“I went back to look at the footage with the coach to see if there was anything I could have gained or improved on from the first match. I tried to use a lot of variations towards the end, I tried to hit the deck a lot harder," he said.

“We had a good practice the day before the match and the guys were positive in terms of coming hard at the batters. That taught me how to execute my plans when the batsman is coming hard at me during the game.”

South Africa are 2-0 up in the five-match series, and are in the hunt for only their second series win in Sri Lanka. The third match is on Sunday, 5 August.

Phehlukwayo is positive about his team’s chances: “The guys are working hard, they are positive and we are playing some good cricket as a team. We are not putting any pressure on ourselves but it is something that we would like to do.

"Teams don’t come here often and win, let alone being 3-0 up, that is something we would like to achieve as a team.”