The hosts, South Africa, comfortably clinched the Betway Test series against Sri Lanka as they recorded a comprehensive 10-wicket win inside 3 days at the Wanderers.
Day three of the match began with Sri Lanka looking determined to drag this game deep. Skipper Dimuth Karunaratne, who was on 91 runs at the start of play, raced to a hundred with back-to-back boundaries at the start of play.
Read – Elgar & Nortje sabotage the Lankans on day one
Sri Lanka started the day on 150 for 4 and stumbled down to the ground pretty soon as they were wrapped up 18 overs into the day’s play. The first to go was the skipper who got too fancy trying to hit a short delivery from Anrich Nortje over mid-wicket, just after reaching his hundred. It was too ordinary from a batsman who was on 103 and looking to bat time to keep his team in contention.
It was yet again the same elementary mistakes from the Lankan batters, chasing after the ball. Niroshan Dickwella was batting on the off-stump, with his leg-stump visible behind him and still kept slashing at deliveries away from his body. He eventually connected a couple but 90 % of the deliveries went whizzing past the edge and gave an immense sense of confidence to the bowlers.
Dasun Shanaka chipped one in the air off Wiaan Mulder by playing a half-hearted stroke while Wanindu Hasaranga was castled by Lutho Sipamla. These two were the only hope for Sri Lanka to post a 3-figure target but they perished with scores of 8 and 16 respectively. The tail did not wag for long as Sipamla took care of things at the end.
Read More – Karunaratne clears the deficit after Vishwa Fernando’s 5-fer
Sri Lanka was written off for 211 runs with an unchallenging target of 67 runs set for the Proteas which they chased down without losing a single wicket.
Seamers, Lungi Ngidi and Lutho Sipamla were the top two in the bowling chart as they returned figures of 4 for 44 and 3 for 40 respectively.
Sri Lanka came into this Test as a depleted team and were never really in the game from the start. Debutant Asitha Fernando was impressive in the way he bowled even though Sri Lanka clearly lacked in the batting department even with 6 experienced batsmen in their top 7.
Sri Lanka lost their win streak against the Saffers as a result of this series defeat, having won their last 4 games against the Proteas. There were some decent performances from the Lankans but none to write home about apart from Karunaratne’s century and Vishwa Fernando’s 5-fer – with the likes of Lahiru Thirimanne, Kusal Perera, Kusal Mendis and co, who all performed below par.
The team will now return to Sri Lanka and begin preparations for their 2-maatch series against England, which is set to commence on the 14th of January.
Result
| Batsmen | R | B | 4s | 6s | SR | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dimuth Karunarathne | c Quinton de Kock b Anrich Nortje | 2 | 32 | 0 | 0 | 6.25 |
| Kusal Perera | c Aiden Markram b Wiaan Mulder | 60 | 67 | 11 | 0 | 89.55 |
| Lahiru Thirimanne | c Faf du Plessis b Wiaan Mulder | 17 | 30 | 3 | 0 | 56.67 |
| Kusal Mendis | c Rassie van der Dussen b Wiaan Mulder | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Minod Bhanuka | c Rassie van der Dussen b Anrich Nortje | 5 | 10 | 1 | 0 | 50.00 |
| Niroshan Dickwella | c Quinton de Kock b Anrich Nortje | 7 | 10 | 1 | 0 | 70.00 |
| Dasun Shanaka | c Quinton de Kock b Anrich Nortje | 4 | 17 | 0 | 0 | 23.53 |
| Wanindu Hasaranga | c Quinton de Kock b Lutho Sipamla | 29 | 27 | 5 | 0 | 107.41 |
| Dushmantha Chameera | c Quinton de Kock b Anrich Nortje | 22 | 29 | 4 | 0 | 75.86 |
| Vishwa Fernando | not out | 2 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 18.18 |
| Asitha Fernando | b Anrich Nortje | 4 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 66.67 |
| Extras | 5 (b 0 , lb 5 , nb 0, w 0, pen 0) |
| Total | 157/10 (40.3 Overs, RR: 3.88) |
| Bowling | O | M | R | W | Econ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lungi Ngidi | 10 | 3 | 44 | 0 | 4.40 | |
| Anrich Nortje | 14.3 | 1 | 56 | 6 | 3.92 | |
| Lutho Sipamla | 9 | 3 | 27 | 1 | 3.00 | |
| Wiaan Mulder | 7 | 3 | 25 | 3 | 3.57 | |
| Batsmen | R | B | 4s | 6s | SR | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dean Elgar | c Lahiru Thirimanne b Dushmantha Chameera | 127 | 163 | 22 | 0 | 77.91 |
| Aiden Markram | c Kusal Mendis b Asitha Fernando | 5 | 21 | 0 | 0 | 23.81 |
| Rassie van der Dussen | c Niroshan Dickwella b Dasun Shanaka | 67 | 127 | 12 | 0 | 52.76 |
| Quinton de Kock | c Kusal Mendis b Vishwa Fernando | 10 | 20 | 1 | 0 | 50.00 |
| Faf du Plessis | c Niroshan Dickwella b Dasun Shanaka | 8 | 15 | 1 | 0 | 53.33 |
| Temba Bavuma | lbw b Vishwa Fernando | 19 | 30 | 3 | 1 | 63.33 |
| Wiaan Mulder | lbw b Vishwa Fernando | 7 | 17 | 1 | 0 | 41.18 |
| Keshav Maharaj | c Niroshan Dickwella b Asitha Fernando | 2 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 25.00 |
| Anrich Nortje | c Kusal Mendis b Vishwa Fernando | 13 | 16 | 2 | 0 | 81.25 |
| Lutho Sipamla | c Dasun Shanaka b Vishwa Fernando | 5 | 19 | 1 | 0 | 26.32 |
| Lungi Ngidi | not out | 14 | 18 | 3 | 0 | 77.78 |
| Extras | 25 (b 8 , lb 14 , nb 0, w 3, pen 0) |
| Total | 302/10 (75.4 Overs, RR: 3.99) |
| Bowling | O | M | R | W | Econ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vishwa Fernando | 23.4 | 0 | 101 | 5 | 4.32 | |
| Asitha Fernando | 19 | 5 | 61 | 2 | 3.21 | |
| Dushmantha Chameera | 14 | 1 | 53 | 1 | 3.79 | |
| Dasun Shanaka | 15 | 4 | 42 | 2 | 2.80 | |
| Wanindu Hasaranga | 4 | 0 | 23 | 0 | 5.75 | |
| Batsmen | R | B | 4s | 6s | SR | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dimuth Karunarathne | c Wiaan Mulder b Anrich Nortje | 103 | 128 | 19 | 0 | 80.47 |
| Kusal Perera | b Lungi Ngidi | 1 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 14.29 |
| Lahiru Thirimanne | c Quinton de Kock b Lungi Ngidi | 31 | 57 | 7 | 0 | 54.39 |
| Kusal Mendis | c Quinton de Kock b Lungi Ngidi | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Minod Bhanuka | c Keshav Maharaj b Anrich Nortje | 1 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 14.29 |
| Niroshan Dickwella | c Temba Bavuma b Lungi Ngidi | 36 | 68 | 6 | 0 | 52.94 |
| Dasun Shanaka | c Lutho Sipamla b Wiaan Mulder | 8 | 24 | 1 | 0 | 33.33 |
| Wanindu Hasaranga | b Lutho Sipamla | 16 | 32 | 2 | 0 | 50.00 |
| Dushmantha Chameera | c Quinton de Kock b Lutho Sipamla | 0 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Vishwa Fernando | not out | 1 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 14.29 |
| Asitha Fernando | b Lutho Sipamla | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Extras | 14 (b 9 , lb 2 , nb 2, w 1, pen 0) |
| Total | 211/10 (56.5 Overs, RR: 3.71) |
| Bowling | O | M | R | W | Econ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lungi Ngidi | 15 | 5 | 44 | 4 | 2.93 | |
| Anrich Nortje | 19 | 2 | 64 | 2 | 3.37 | |
| Wiaan Mulder | 13 | 3 | 52 | 1 | 4.00 | |
| Lutho Sipamla | 9.5 | 1 | 39 | 3 | 4.11 | |
| Batsmen | R | B | 4s | 6s | SR | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dean Elgar | not out | 31 | 27 | 5 | 0 | 114.81 |
| Aiden Markram | not out | 36 | 53 | 4 | 0 | 67.92 |
| Extras | 0 (b 0 , lb 0 , nb 0, w 0, pen 0) |
| Total | 67/0 (13.2 Overs, RR: 5.03) |
| Bowling | O | M | R | W | Econ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vishwa Fernando | 4 | 0 | 23 | 0 | 5.75 | |
| Asitha Fernando | 4 | 1 | 20 | 0 | 5.00 | |
| Wanindu Hasaranga | 2.2 | 0 | 16 | 0 | 7.27 | |
| Dasun Shanaka | 3 | 1 | 8 | 0 | 2.67 | |
