South Africa duly bowled out Sri Lanka for 282 in 79.4 overs in their second innings, winning the first test by 233 runs midway through the afternoon on the fourth day at Kingsmead in Durban on Saturday.
On the whole, it was an excellent performance from the home team after they dismissed Sri Lanka for a record 42 in their first innings, but the last day did not see the Proteas’ bowlers at their best.
Too often, their disciplines deserted them when a tight line and length were essential on a placid pitch under cloudless skies with a drying north-easterly wind blowing across the ground.
For long periods on the final day, the Sri Lankan batters, Dinesh Chandimal (83), Dhananjaya de Silva (59) and Kusal Mendis (48) looked comfortable against an attack that fed them generous quantities of boundary balls.
Two of the three key wickets to fall were soft ones, with De Silva popping a tame catch to midwicket off an innocuous ball from Keshav Maharaj and Chandimal getting a leading edge to a routine legside delivery from Gerald Coetzee.
But in the end, as always seemed likely, Sri Lanka were unable to duplicate their “miracle” one-wicket victory of 2019 by somehow scoring the 516 runs required for victory. One of the survivors of the 2019 win, Vishwa Fernando, helped Kusal Perreira to record an extraordinary win on that occasion, but this afternoon he was quickly dismissed for a single, pushing forward to Maharaj and edging a routine catch to Aiden Markram at slip.
FINAL FLOURISH
The final flourish was rightly left to the player of the match, Marco Jansen, who uprooted the leg stump of Asitha Fernando, his fourth wicket in the innings and his 11th in the match after his remarkable career-best feat of 7/13 in the Sri Lankan first innings.
Jansen’s match figures of 11-86 are the second-best ever recorded at Kingsmead behind Aussie legspinner Clarrie Grimmett who took a haul of 13-173 against South Africa in 1936.
Starting the day on a fragile 103 for five, Chandimal and skipper De Silva frustrated the Proteas’ attempted march to victory with a 95-run stand for the sixth wicket.
It had looked increasingly likely that Sri Lanka would survive the session without losing a wicket with both batters looking comfortable against both pace and spin.
Then, 30 minutes before lunch, Maharaj – who until then had made little impression on the batters – made the breakthrough with an innocuous delivery that, unfathomably, De Silva clipped gently to Tristan Stubbs at midwicket.
THE SOFTEST DISMISSAL
It was the softest of dismissals and completely unexpected given how much at ease the Sri Lankan captain had looked. He departed with 59 to his name, including nine fours and an off-driven six off Maharaj
Kusal Mendis, however, didn’t miss a beat as he continued to plunder runs with Chandimal after lunch. The pair added 75 in 115 balls before, once again, a wicket fell out of the blue as Chandimal got a leading edge to Coetzee and sent a return catch to the bowler.
That, effectively was that, particularly with the fall of Mendis who got a good one from Coetzee that left him off the pitch.
Speaking afterwards, Proteas’ coach Shukri Conrad praised his team for playing some “really good cricket, with particular praise for Jansen, skipper Bavuma and Tristan Stubbs, the team’s centurions in the second innings. In many ways, however, Bavuma’s first innings 70 in testing batting conditions was the high point of his match and Conrad paid tribute to his captain saying it was his “best-ever test”.
There are areas for improvement, and Conrad said he was pleased that South Africa’s bowlers were forced to toil during the session and a half of play today when the pitch was placid. “Sri Lanka are a good side, and we know they will come back hard at us next week.”
South Africa face injury problems before next week’s second test in Qeberha, however, with Wiaan Mulder (broken finger) out for the series and Gerald Coetzee nursing a groin problem. “Wiaan’s absence is a massive loss for us,” Conrad conceded, “and we hope that he will be ready for the Pakistan series.”
SOUTH AFRICA: Aiden Markram, Tony de Zorzi, Tristan Stubbs, Temba Bavuma (capt.), David Bedingham, Kyle Verreynne (wk), Marco Jansen, Wiaan Mulder, Gerald Coetzee, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada
SRI LANKA: Dimuth Karunaratne, Pathum Nissanka, Dinesh Chandimal, Angelo Mathews, Kamindu Mendis, Dhananjaya de Silva (capt), Kusal Mendis (wk), Prabath Jayasuriya, Lahiru Kumara, Asitha Fernando, Vishwa Fernando