South Africa extended their lead to 170 by stumps on the second day of a fast-moving Test at Kingsmead, but lost four wickets in the process. This kept Sri Lanka just about in the game, their persistence with the ball making up a little for their brittleness with the bat as their top order offered flair, but little substance. Kusal Perera’s 51 was the top score in their 191.
Dale Steyn collected 4 for 48, moving ahead of Kapil Dev on the all-time wicket-takers list to bowl Sri Lanka out in just over two sessions. Then in the evening, debutant Lasith Embuldeniya took two wickets, and Kasun Rajitha and Vishwa Fernando one each, to keep South Africa to 126 for 4 at the close.
Rajitha struck first for the visitors after South Africa started their second innings after tea, with Aiden Markram offering a lose waft to slip after a breezy 28. Vishwa then found a little extra bounce off a length to surprise Hashim Amla into a glide into the hands of gully, and soon afterwards, Embuldeniya rushed one through Temba Bavuma’s sweep to trap him lbw and reduce South Africa to 77 for 3.
Sri Lanka may have found themselves in an even better position had they been able to take the opportunities that came their way. Probing but largely without luck, Vishwa should have had a second wicket – and Sri Lanka a third in the space of four overs – when he found the edge of Elgar’s bat before he had made 30, only for Kusal Mendis to put a relatively tough offering down in the slips.
Sri Lanka also missed a clear chance to run Faf du Plessis out early in his innings, but a fumble at cover saw it go begging. Embuldeniya held a stinging return catch to get rid of Elgar before too much damage had been done, but du Plessis and Quinton de Kock added an unbroken 31 thereafter.
While there is still only a fine line separating these two teams in this match, Sri Lanka had started the day in a position of relative strength. But Steyn’s repeated incisions, and the inability of the top order to dig in, eroded that position as the day wore on.
Steyn wasn’t the fastest South African bowler on show – both Kagiso Rabada and Duanne Olivier bowled quicker, with Rabada nudging towards 150kph at times – but the Sri Lankan lower order, nevertheless, struggled to deal with his attacking lengths.
Sri Lanka also made things harder for themselves as, within the first thirty minutes of play, they had already declined to take a review that would have saved debutant Oshada Fernando when he was given out lbw to Steyn. Replays proved the ball would’ve missed leg stump. Having failed to use one when they could’ve been saved, they burnt one when Dimuth Karunaratne was given out and replays only served to confirm the umpire’s call.
Neither Kusal Mendis nor Niroshan Dickwella lasted long, undone by Vernon Philander’s persistent line in the channel and Olivier’s disconcerting bounce respectively. But at the other end, Kusal Perera refused to allow the dismissals to slow his tempo. Having taken back to back boundaries off Philander, he crunched Rabada on the up through cover and then lifted the same bowler for six over deep square leg to race into the 20s. Agencies