Lasith Malinga and Nuwan Kulasekara held their nerve in the death overs with miserly fast bowling as Sri Lanka beat South Africa by five runs in their World Twenty20 opener at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury stadium in Chittagong on Saturday.

South Africa had the upper hand chasing 166 for victory in their Group I Super 10 match and needed 19 runs off the last two overs with five wickets in hand.

But Kulasekara gave away just four runs and picked up the wicket of Farhaan Behardien (five) to leave South Africa needing 15 runs off limited-overs specialist Malinga's final over. Dale Steyn (zero) and the dangerous David Miller (19) were run out off the first two deliveries and although Imran Tahir (eight not out) managed a last-ball six, the chase had already gone out of South Africa's reach.

AB de Villiers, captaining the side in the absence of the injured Faf du Plessis, was not impressed by his team's finish.

"I do not think it was our best bowling performance ever but definitely our bowlers did a good job to get us into play," De Villiers, who leads South Africa in the 50-over format, said at the presentation ceremony.

"If we are going to win this tournament we gotta chase down totals like this. We know that. "We got close, we were on track but unfortunately very disappointing finish. We lost too many wickets towards the end." JP Duminy (39) top-scored for the Proteas, who ended on 160 for eight, and off-spinner Sachithra Senanayake was the most successful Sri Lankan bowler with figures of two for 22.