SA win on swings, lose on roundabouts

Times Media

TELFORD VICE, Colombo

SA won on the swings but lost on the roundabouts as the see-sawing second test against Sri Lanka refused to tilt one way or the other and stay there in Colombo yesterday.

But the second day’s play at Sinhalese Sports Club was no-one’s idea of a trip to the funfair. Runs were hard to come by and wickets even more so as the pitch slowed to the speed of toffee on an apple.

SA started brightly by claiming the Lankans’ last five wickets for 36 runs to dismiss them for 421 an hour after lunch. But, by stumps, the fizz had faded - the visitors had taken a slow ghost train to reach 98/3 in reply, still 323 runs behind.

Importantly, Hashim Amla has that steely look in his eye and will soldier on this morning on 46. AB de Villiers reached 11 not out yesterday.

How they handle the Lankans’ spin trio of left-armer Rangana Herath, mystery man Ajantha Mendis and off-spinner Dilruwan Perera will go a log way to revealing whether SA will hold onto their 1-0 series lead.

“The pitch is still pretty good to bat on, but they have a big variety of spinners who don’t give you much to hit,” Faf du Plessis said. “They all offer something different - Herath bowls on a small coin all day, Mendis has a lot of variety, and Perera doesn’t look dangerous but he keeps getting people out.”

Mahela Jayawardene saw the South Africans’ slow scoring - their runrate for the innings is 1.88 - as key: “It will be tough to score runs because the ball isn’t coming on to the bat; that’s why we picked three spinners.

“The way the South Africans batted, our total of 400-plus looks like 550. But we have to make sure we don’t give them a big first innings. As long as we can create opportunities to take wickets, we might not need that many runs in the second innings.”

Yesterday’s first order of business for SA was to rid themselves of Jayawardene. Easier said than done, of course. He resumed on 140 not out and took his score to 165 before he was removed in the fifth over before lunch.

Fittingly, the bowlers Jayawardene had no trouble dispatching to all parts of his favourite ground did not have the honour of dismissing him. Instead, he was run out by Alviro Petersen’s direct hit from short fine leg trying to take two to JP Duminy.

The end of Jayawardene’s innings of almost five hours also halted at 100 a partnership he shared with Niroshan Dickwella, the impressively confident debutant who is just two years out of school and was whisked off Sri Lanka A’s tour to England to replace Dinesh Chandimal.

Dickwella, too, could not be quelled by SA’s bowlers. He was run out for 72 by Quinton de Kock scampering to short fine leg and firing in another direct hit.

Hearteningly for SA, as the home side’s innings unravelled Imran Tahir ended his streak of wicketless deliveries at 315 and Vernon Philander put last week’s unhappy first test behind him by claiming two scalps.

But Dale Steyn leaving the field after hitting his head on the outfield as he came to earth with a thud in trying to take a catch proved a portent for the way the rest of SA’s day would go. Steyn should, however, be good to go today.

What with Sri Lanka having selected only one specialist seamer in Suranga Lakmal, Herath shared the new ball - and struck almost immediately when Petersen blipped his fifth delivery straight back to him.

Then, in the eighth over before tea, Dean Elgar fiddled a ball from Perera onto his pad and into short leg’s hands, followed an hour before the close by Du Plessis chasing a harmless legside delivery Lakmal and offering Dickwella the chance to take a flying catch - which, of course, he did. Du Plessis gritty innings was over at 36.

“They should change that law and give you another chance,” Du Plessis muttered with a smile.