One-day series 'three-horse race'

Sri Lanka skipper Marvan Atapattu, believes any of the three sides in the VB Series could still win the title.

The batsman's comments came after a thrilling nine-run defeat to South Africa, leaving three points separating the sides in the group stage.

"The tournament is wide open. It's not a two-horse race," said Atapattu.

"We are the underdogs but we'll try to do our best. If we play like we played (on Tuesday) then I think we will win more games."

There are still four games left for each side before the best-of-three finals series begins on 10 February.

Tuesday's match report

South Africa captain Graeme Smith said his team played the pressure parts of Tuesday's game superbly to beat Sri Lanka in Adelaide.

And he praised Herschelle Gibbs and Boeta Dippenaar for their aggressive batting which helped post 263-5.

"That was superb. I think our last 10 overs with the bat and our last 10 overs with the ball were our best part of the game," he added.

"It was great to see how Herschelle let loose and gave us the momentum. Boeta's knock was great too and gave us something to defend."

VB SERIES TABLE

Team	Pld	Won	Pts	Net run rate
Australia	4	2	10	+0.58
Sri Lanka	4	2	9	+0.10
South Africa	4	2	8	-0.68