Dhananjaya de Silva kept Sri Lanka’s hopes alive with a fighting knock on day two of the first Test against South Africa at St George’s Park on Tuesday.
Number 7 batsman, De Silva remained unbeaten on 43 as Sri Lanka struggled their way towards 181 for 7, still 105 runs behind South Africa’s first innings total of 286 before bad light brought a premature end to the day’s play.
South African new ball bowlers Vernon Philander and Kyle Abbott put the Sri Lankan batsmen under pressure in seam-friendly conditions, with the first three wickets falling for 22 runs.
Abbott drew first blood when Dimuth Karunarathne drove away from his body and chopped one onto the stumps. Number 3 batsman, Kusal Perera made a horrible stroke by trying to square drive a good length delivery by Vernon Philander but managed only to nick it behind.Youngster Kusal Mendis lasted only 9 deliveries as he was caught behind off Abbott for a duck.
Captain Angelo Mathews joined Kaushal Silva to add 39 runs for the fourth wicket. Silva showed a solid defensive technique in seam-friendly conditions but crawled to 16 off 108 balls before he was struck plumb in front by Philander that nipped back after a succession of deliveries that left the batsman.
Angelo Mathews fought well for his 69-ball 39 before pushing at a ball from Kagiso Rabada to be caught at third slip. Vice-Captain Dinesh Chandimal and Rangana Herath provided able assistance to De Silva scoring 28 and 24 respectively.
Chandimal was also dismissed by the disciplined Philander who struck him right in front of the stumps while Herath missed a reverse-sweep off Keshav Maharaj.
It was not a perfect performance by the South African bowlers. Philander and Abbott both bowled well, taking 3 for 35 and 2 for 49 respectively, but rising star Kagiso Rabada had an off day.
Earlier, the hosts resumed day two on 267 for 6 and lost their last four wickets for just 19 runs in the opening hour as opening bowlers, Suranga Lakmal and Nuwan Pradeep did most of the damage returning figures of 5 for 63 and 2 for 66 respectively to bowl out South Africa for 286.
Philander fell to the perfect ‘Short Ball’ trap laid by Nuwan Pradeep as he holed out to deep square leg as Sri Lanka struck in the fifth over of the morning. In the very next over, Lakmal took his fifth scalp, his maiden Test five-wicket haul with a brilliant delivery which took Maharaj’s outside edge and Dinesh Chandimal did the rest behind the stumps.
Abbott was involved in an ugly run-out and the last recognized batsman, Quinton De Kock was castled by Pradeep with a perfect yorker as the visitors required only 8.5 overs to bundle out the hosts.
