South Africa vs Sri Lanka, 1st Test - Who Said What

Sri Lanka have done it! Kusal Perera did it with a superhuman effort! The left-hander denied an IPL contract last year to feature in the Test team for Sri Lanka by playing in the domestic cricket. His efforts paid off sensationally in the end. With his team down at 226/9, Kusal took the number 11 Vishwa Fernando by his side to stage an amazing and once in a lifetime partnership of 78 runs for the last wicket.

Sri Lanka began the day at 83/3 and the word around was, “South Africa needs only seven wickets to win the match.” Literally, nobody must have given them even an ounce of a chance to win the game but they believed in themselves and have done it. The team was shuffled a lot for this series after a debacle in Australia. Dimuth Karunaratne was named the stand-in captain even as they handed a debut for Oshada Fernando and Lasith Embuldeniya.

How did SA lose it?

At 110/5, Dhananjaya de Silva joined hands with Kusal Perera and this was the partnership which made the visitors believe that they can win. The duo added 96 runs for the sixth wicket but after being at 206/5, De Silva tried to play across the line and was pinned in front of the stumps. They collapsed to 226/9 soon and one felt that the end was nigh for the Islanders.

But Kusal Perera believed in himself and one has to credit Vishwa Fernando for the way he batted. Somehow he managed to weather the storm while facing the likes of Dale Steyn, Kagiso Rabada and Duanne Olivier. When the target came less than 30, the South Africans also crumbled to concede an overthrow and then it was all about the sixes from Kusal who ended the game with a brilliant placement.

Man of the Match, Kusal Perera said:

I’m still tired now. I don’t know what to say. Great effort as a team, specially the lower order batsmen. They gave me good support. I believed in myself and we did. I did my part, winning as a team. We did our homework. This is a special win for us.We did a lot of hard work in previous times.

Sri Lanka captain, Dimuth Karunaratne said:

It was an awesome game. We knew that we had a good chance. We have played here in Durban in 2012 we won a match here. We had a tough series in Australia, but we learnt some things. It will be good for us and Sri Lankan fans.

This is a proud moment for me as a captain and for Sri Lanka. We were not moving. End of the day, we did a good job here, result is good as well. He batted really well. He is one of the most experienced players in the side. Two debutants did really well. As a team, we have to play as a unit and give our best.

South Africa captain, Faf du Plessis said:

Incredible game of cricket, obviously disappointed. Great for the game of Test cricket. Perera was unbelievable – Superman effort. We were under-par. (On losing 5/8) The wicket was slow and made the ball slow, they changed the ball and it started to swing.

The swing was what that did us. I thought 300 was enough. Great batting took it away from us. I’d be lying if I say there wasn’t emotions going through inside. Difficult for a captain, tactically. Brilliant bowling from Dale again.

Disappointed not to have Vern today. I’d have backed the four bowlers to take 10 wickets. It’s disappointing as it’s just a 2-match series. We’ll come back stronger.

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