Sri Lanka vs South Africa: 2nd Test, Day 2, Review- South African batsmen put up a poor show yet again

The second Test between Sri Lanka and South Africa is yet again turning out to be a one-sided affair. At the close of play on Day 2, the hosts are clearly in the driver’s seat with a massive lead of 365 runs. The South African batsmen, yet again, ended up being a sheer disappointment and failed to give the home team a fight. Furthermore, the visitors also started the second day on a terrible note.

South African bowlers take ages to wrap up Sri Lanka’s innings

Sri Lanka carried on from an overnight score of 277 runs for the loss of nine wickets. Akila Dananjaya and Rangana Herath continued with their batting on the second day. South Africa would clearly have wanted to wrap things up quickly. However, to the utter disappointment of the fans, the Proteas bowlers lacked the flare and found it quite tough to make the final breakthrough.

In fact, it took them about 18 overs to get the last wicket as Sri Lanka added 61 more runs on the day. The team was bowled out for 338 runs when Keshav Maharaj dismissed Herath to pick up his ninth wicket of the innings. But, the Proteas batsmen failed to draw some inspiration from Maharaj’s bowling. They clearly didn’t play up to their potential and were reduced to 15/3 in the ninth over of their innings.

This lineup clearly misses a dynamic batsman like AB de Villiers in the middle order, and the onus was on Hashim Amla and Faf du Plessis to help their team get as close as possible to Sri Lanka’s total. However, both these batsmen perished after having got themselves off to a good start. While Amla was dismissed for 19 runs, du Plessis threw his wicket away after scoring 48 runs.

Temba Bavuma also failed to bail the team out of the tough situation as he perished for 11 runs. With the help of 32 runs from Quinton de Kock, the South Africans got to 124 runs, 214 short of Sri Lanka’s total. Akila Dananjaya picked a five-wicket haul while Dilruwan Perera picked four. Sri Lanka only used three bowlers in the innings.

Sri Lanka takes the lead sky-high

The Sri Lankan openers were quite reliable in the second innings as well. They counter-attacked Keshav Maharaj who was the top performer in the first innings. Danushka Gunathilaka scored 61 runs which came off just 68 balls. His partner Dimuth Karunaratne is still batting on 59 runs and will be crucial for them going into the third day.

Dhananjaya de Silva was dismissed for a duck while Kusal Mendis was run out after scoring 18 runs. Angelo Mathews is in the middle currently with Karunaratne. He scored 12 runs thus far as Sri Lanka ended the day with a total of 151 runs for the loss of three wickets. Their lead is now 365 runs and the game only seems to be going out of South Africa’s reach.

Brief Scores

Sri Lanka, 1st Innings: 338/10 in 104.1 overs (Dhananjaya de Silva 60, Danushka Gunathilaka 57, Keshav Maharaj 9/129)

South Africa, 1st Innings: 124/10 in 34.5 overs (Faf du Plessis 48, Quinton de Kock 32, Akila Dhananjaya 5/52)

Sri Lanka, 2nd Innings: 151/3 in 34 overs (Danushka Gunathilaka 61, Dimuth Karunaratne 59*, Keshav Maharaj 2/90)

Sri Lanka lead by 365 runs.

Close of Play: Day 2

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