Rex Clementine in Johannesburg
Sri Lankans have found playing Test cricket hard work in South Africa. In all, they have played 12 Tests here, won one, drawn one and lost the other ten. While Sri Lanka’s batsmen have found it tough here on the hard and bouncy surfaces, their fielders haven’t helped the team’s cause.
When Sri Lanka toured South Africa last time in 2011, their best tour to this country, they went into the third and final Test in Cape Town with the series squared 1-1.
Jacques Kallis, South Africa’s best batsman was out of sorts in that series. He had been hit by a nasty Dilhara Fernando bouncer in South Africa’s only innings in the first Test at Centurion and then got a pair in the second Test in Durban.
The tourists felt that they had sorted out the Kallis threat leading up to the final Test. South Africa’s media were at it calling that Kallis was losing his eye-sight.
Before he had got off the mark, Kallis pulled one straight to the deep square leg fielder, but Chanaka Welegedara failed to hold onto the chance. Kallis made the tourist pay with a memorable double hundred.
History repeated here in Johannesburg on Thursday six years later. Hashim Amla has taken over from Kallis as South Africa’s leading batsman and he came into the game low on confidence after a string of poor scores. Amla hadn’t made a half-century in his last ten innings and was under pressure.
The fact that this was his 100th Test added onto the expectations.
After South Africa opted to bat first, Sri Lanka’s seamers dismissed the openers cheaply. Amla looked out of touch and vulnerable before Suranga Lakmal took the outside edge of his bat. The ball flew to gully, but Dhananjaya de Silva failed to hold onto a simile catch.
“Dhananjaya is one of our best fielders you know. These things happen and that’s part of cricket. You have to forget about it and move on. It was costly, but I have watched lot of easier catches than that one being dropped. Sometimes even the best of fielders miss catches,” Sri Lanka’s opener Kaushal Silva told journalists after the game.
Dhananjaya had also dropped Stephen Cook in the first Test when he was on 64. He went onto score 117 on that occasion. Amla made most of the drop on Thursday going onto make an unbeaten hundred. He was 125 not out at stumps having batted for over five hours and faced 221 deliveries.
Amla added 292 runs for the third wicket with J.P. Duminy, who was dismissed in the penultimate over before close. The partnership is the best for South Africa for any wicket against Sri Lanka.
“Hasim was under a bit of pressure. He wasn’t scoring freely. After getting to his 30 or so he was more onto his normal self. After he got his 50 he played fluently. It was a great knock by him,” Kaushal said.
“I thought in that the first hour the wicket did quite a bit. Our guys bowled really well and we were bit unlucky. There were quite a few balls that would have brought us wickets. But it didn’t go our way. After lunch, the wicket got flatter and run making was easier. The ball got softer as well and once that happens it’s easy to score runs,” Kaushal observed.
By stumps, South Africa were in a dominant position having reached 338 for three. The dismissal of Duminy late in the day was some consolation for the Sri Lankans.
“Obviously whenever Lahiru Kumara comes to bowl he gives 100 percent. It was good to get Duminy out towards the end. That was one of the positives for us to take forward tomorrow,” Kaushal added.
