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South Africa suffered one of their blackest days at Kingsmead yesterday when Sri Lanka put themselves in pole position to level the series.
South Africa suffered one of their blackest days at Kingsmead yesterday when Sri Lanka put themselves in pole position to level the series before going to Cape Town next week.
On a day when 14 wickets fell on a still-excellent pitch for batting, Sri Lanka lost their captain Tillakaratne Dilshan, but still have an overall lead of 177 with nine second-innings wickets in hand.
Not only did Sri Lanka record their biggest total, 338, against the Proteas in South Africa, but the home team slumped to their lowest Test total, 168, against the visitors. If the Lankans do win, it will be South Africa’s fourth consecutive Test loss here, an extraordinary statistic given that the conditions ought to suit the home team.
With one or two shining exceptions, the quality of the batting has been poor in this Test match and, it has to be said, throughout much of the summer. It’s difficult to remember batsmen being genuinely got out over the last two days. Marchant de Lange’s dismissal of Kumar Sangakkara was one obvious example on Monday, but there have been precious few others.
The day at least started reasonably well for the Proteas with De Lange extending his overnight haul of wickets from four to seven. The Tzaneen-born fast bowler’s figures of 23.2-3-81-7 were the third best of any South African Test debutant, with Lance Klusener leading the way with his 8/64 against India in Kolkata in 1996/97.
More significantly perhaps, in a year when a rash of new fast bowlers have exploded onto the world stage, De Lange’s figures are the best of the eight newcomers to Test cricket who took five-wicket hauls.
The 21-year-old wouldn’t have played at all here if Vernon Philander hadn’t pulled out of the match with a knee ligament strain and it must be hugely encouraging for coach Gary Kirsten to know that he has such quality in his pace arsenal.
The good news for the Sri Lankans was that 35-year-old Thilan Samaraweera struck his 13th Test hundred, only the second by a Sri Lankan in South Africa and only his second outside the sub-continent.
In retrospect, the way the right-hander went about his business served as the perfect example to the Proteas batsmen over how they should have approached their batting. He battled for nearly six hours for his runs and showed the utmost circumspection as he built his innings. His opponents weren’t paying attention.
First Jacques Rudolph hooked a long hop from Thisara Perera straight to long leg, where Chanaka Welegedera scooped up a good catch diving forward. It was the start of a happy sequence of events for the left-arm paceman who went on to record his best Test figures of 5/52, with another left-armer, spinner Rangana Herath, providing excellent assistance in a disciplined spell of 4/49 in 20 overs.
Almost immediately after taking the catch to get rid of Rudolph, Welegedera induced Graeme Smith to fend at a delivery he should have left, edging to the wicket-keeper.
Two overs later, the same bowler tempted Jacques Kallis to edge the first of three slip catches to Mahela Jayawardene and South Africa had suddenly lost three wickets for five runs.
The Sri Lankans, after bowling one side of the wicket, then briefly lost their discipline as Angelo Mathews and Dilhara Fernando gave Hashim Amla the chance to practise his square cut and AB de Villiers his cover drive. The two added an entertaining 76 for the fourth wicket before De Villiers stretched way outside his off stump to be caught behind.
South Africa have suffered some collapses this summer, but few as depressing as the one that followed as they lost five wickets for 16 runs.
No dismissal typified the dismal batting more vividly than the demise of Ashwell Prince. The left-hander, on 11, had a rush of blood to the head and reverse-swept Herath. The ball struck his pad and then clipped the bat on the follow-through to loop to a disbelieving Jayawardene at slip.
It was only Dale Steyn’s unbeaten 29, which included two superbly struck sixes, that took the Proteas past the follow-on mark. - Cape Times
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Christian Jonker, wrote
Let's start with the coach! It is a historical fact, that SA are brilliant in the field, and have always had a good bowling attack! Our specialist "Batsmen" always seem to have "an off day" when it counts the most!! I think it's time the selectors looked long and hard at who is "doing it" for the team, and who is a "passenger"???
Darth Vader, wrote
Mmmm....some interesting comments here..Mohit for one seems to have an "idea"..as for Daryn Smit, if he could consistently hold onto a cricket ball behind the stumps..maybe..but I don't think so....what we need , I , think is a captain change(in fact take Smith out the picture all together)some batting changes and let De Lange have his "wind" and take him to England...get rid of Morkel...and well..we all should be selectors and then get rid of Hudson!!!...
Anonymous, wrote
Why not give Richard Levi a chance. He has been the most consistent batsment all year. And please drop Morne Morkel when Philander comes back from injury. He is useless with ball and bat.
Letsleveltheseries, wrote
They're just levelling the series for the grand finale in the New Year for ticket sales. It also makes cricket look a lot more competitive and perhaps earns them some hard earned ca$h at the bookies... Come now, we should have blasted them away! That was a total batting wicket...
mark, wrote
What the hell is Prince doing still playing test cricket, what player in their right mind plays a reverse sweep in test cricket let alone when your team is in a bad spot. The only 2 batsman who went out due to good deliveries were Amla and Kallis. The rest of the plonkers should be ashamed of themselves. Time for Biff to take up lawn bowls or something like that as well.
mohit, wrote
this south african team is just not good enough.let me start from the top order batting...rudolph is not doing enough and i was the one always supporting him but the kind of rash shot that he played is not acceptable..he should be moved to no.6 and give him one series at no.6 spot..if he fails to deliver then kick him out of the team..hashim amla plays at every thing,i am sorry to say but his introduction to odis and t20 was idiotic decision on selectors part..he should be told to curb his attacking batting ..de villiers says that he dont want to keep as he wants to focus on his batting..man what he did..he played a bad bad shot and i am sorry if he is going to play that way then make him keeper..drop boucher and prince now and forever...bring in dean elgar and rilee russouw and heino kuhn if de villiers improve his rash batting....drop imran tahir..he is not international class..give chance to duminy to prove himself as an allrounder who has to bowl 20 overs of his off spinner if he wants to play test cricket...thats it....
Kevin Smith, wrote
I have been saying for some time now that our batters are just not patient enough. There is no discipline in how they go about things. Even Amla is no slashing at balls that are getting him out. Prince is just a shadow of the player he used to be. These guys are getting paid huge amounts of money to play back yard shots in a test match. Captain and coach must be told to wake up or get out. Boucher needs to be replaced by a genuine batsman. How can you have Morkel coming in at 9 when he cannot even hold a bat. Steyn should be a good no 10 and yet we have to rely on him at 8 when this is traditionally an all rounder spot. He is a bowler who can bat a bit. Darryn Smit should have been in Bouchers place a year ago.
Squarecut, wrote
When was the last time we have a 100run opening partneship ? We are always on the backfoot at 502 with both our openers back in the hut...we will never score test winning totals of 450+ simply because we have the wrong personel opening our batting. Gream Smith suffers from inconsistency in his batting simply because he does not feel the heat nor does he fear loosing his place, there are simply no youngsters coming through the 1st class system who are scoring buckets full of runs, as a result Smith knows that we do not have a choice but to play him...As for Jacques Rudolf, for me he is not an international opening batsman, he does not move his feet against a moving new ball and likes to play too many shorts early on in his innings. I feel he will be better suited batting at no 6, where he'll come in and face a softer ball and tired bowlers, then he can play his expensive game and take the game away from the opposition...but knowing our selectors, they are going to persists with the Smith & Rudolf opening combination even during the New Zealand and England serieses...and Im afraid the 502 scenario will continue, scores of 45-+ will not be achieved and test matches will not be won...
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