Sri Lanka vs South Africa: 2nd Test- Who Said What

Rangana Herath's six-wicket haul outclassed Theunis de Bruyn's second Test century in the second innings.

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Theunis de Bruyn
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Theunis de Bruyn. (Photo Source: Twitter)

The second Test between Sri Lanka and South Africa at Sinhalese Sports Club in Colombo turned out to be another one-sided affair as the home team thumped Faf du Plessis’ men by 199 runs. With the resounding triumph, the Lankans also ensured that they won the two-match series 2-0 after their thumping victory in the first match at the Galle International Stadium.

Suranga Lakmal won the toss and elected to bat first. Their top-order batsmen- Danushka Gunathilaka, Dimuth Karunaratne, and Dhananjaya de Silva- compiled half-centuries to lift their team to a competitive 338 runs in the first innings. Akila Dananjaya and Rangana Herath’s 74-run stand also helped the team’s cause. For the Proteas, Keshav Maharaj was stupendous, to say the least.

The left-arm tweaker picked up nine wickets and turned out to be a thorn in the flesh of the Lankan batting lineup. The visiting team slumped to 124 all out in their first innings. Dilruwan Perera and Dananjaya picked up nine wickets between them to rip apart South Africa’s batting. Skipper du Plessis top-scored with a quick-fire 48 runs with eight boundaries and a solitary six.

Lankans complete annihilation

With a lead of 214 runs, Sri Lanka were well and truly on the driver’s seat. Gunathilaka and Karunaratne put on 91 runs for the first wicket. Both of them scored fifties to disallow the visitors a foothold into the contest. Eventually, the Lankans declared with the score at 275/5 in 81 overs. Most importantly, they set a daunting target of 490 runs for the visiting team to chase.

Du Plessis and Co showed resilience in the run-chase and the home team had to fight in order to snatch the victory. Theunis de Bruyn notched his second Test century and also built a 123-run stand with Temba Bavuma. However, Rangana Herath, who could pick up only one wicket in the first innings, finished with a six-wicket haul and helped Sri Lanka to glory.

Faf du Plessis, South Africa’s captain, said

The guys played well in the last innings, de Bruyn played an exceptional knock and showed it is possible to get big runs in these conditions. Credit to Sri Lanka, they were outstanding. They beat us in all departments of the game that we played in the last eight days. We have some lessons to learn but we did manage to put in some good performance. Keshav Maharaj was exceptional, he put up a record bowling performance for South Africa. He has a good future ahead of him. For Sri Lanka, there wasn’t 6 or 7 batsmen putting runs on the board there were just one or two. That’s what you need.

Right through the series we failed to get partnerships. We only got 3 fifty plus partnerships right through the series and that is very low. Looking at the wicket, we definitely would have played an extra spinner, our thinking was it is an abrasive surface and ball will reverse. There was zero reverse swing. It is a lesson to learn, when we come to sub-continent we need to pick an extra spinner as pitches are very dry. So, It was a mistake on our part not to play an extra spinner.”

Suranga Lakmal, Sri Lanka’s skipper, said

We worked really hard and the results are due to the hard work of the team. Sri Lanka has some of the best spinners in the world and that is the reason they have troubled the South African batsmen. I am not thinking too far about the captaincy as it is a team game.

Dimuth Karunaratne, Player of the Match and Series, said

I did really well in the series so I was sure I will be the man of the series. For the first few overs it came nicely onto the bat but old ball spun a lot. I stick to my basics and try to get maximum runs. We always take series by series, now we will prepare for the England series and then we will prepare for New Zealand and then Australia.

Rangana Herath said    

Winning the game and winning the series, against the number two side – very pleased with it. Wherever you go and take wickets, you like the ground, especially SSC. The harder ball gives a bit of assistance for the spinners. Spinners bowled really well throughout the series. I know everybody has a time to go. That’s why I have decided to stop playing cricket. Hopefully, in the series against England, I will do my best.

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