There have been too many Test series in the last decade where South Africa tossed away the advantage of playing at home for their dominance in this Sunfoil Series against Sri Lanka to just be casually dismissed.
You’ll not hear a whisper from any Proteas player about “it’s only Sri Lanka”, or “it wasn’t a true Test”. After last summer when Test wins were as rare as hen’s teeth, every victory is treasured, every performance respected. And the Proteas have performed magnificently in these three Tests.
Not pleased with a mediocre first innings total in PE, they batted big in the second.
When many were calling for a follow-on in Cape Town, they showed the opposition respect by batting on, putting themselves in an unassailable position and winning the series there. And here they dominated with the bat on a tricky pitch and then destroyed Sri Lanka with the ball, fast bowlers Kagiso Rabada and Vernon Philander especially utilising conditions in expert fashion.
Sri Lanka’s spirits were crushed, their confidence has been shattered. By contrast, the Proteas’ is nearly as high as the skipper’s leap to take a stunning catch on Saturday.
And yet South Africa won’t be resting on their laurels. The No1 Test ranking, which once belonged to a previous generation that wore the dark green cap, is a goal this new group is desperate to achieve. So they will re-build a bowling attack, stick by an opening combination that lacks flare but is dogged and assist a middle order batsman who’s currently out of form but not too long ago was producing series-defining performances.
“We have pretty clear goals, we’ve been very goal-driven in the last six months and it’s been very effective,” Faf du Plessis said on Saturday.
JP Duminy makes his 100 against Sri Lanka at the Wanderers. Photo: Reuters
“Series by series we set out our goals. We want to get back to No1. It will take us a bit of time with India playing (all their games at home).”
The captain added that his side were still not the finished article although in Philander and Rabada, who shared 36 wickets between them, they have two of the best seam bowlers on the circuit. “We’ve definitely got a long way to go. Consistency in batting is something we want to get better at we are batting at 70 percent and, although its tough conditions, there is 30 percent left in the batting unit.
“The bowling in these conditions with Vernon and KG is really good. It’s good to see someone like Keshav (Maharaj) bowl well on wickets that don’t assist him a lot. That’s a positive sign for us going forward with him as the No1 spinner in the Test team.”
With Kyle Abbott gone, the two seam bowlers used here, Wayne Parnell in his first Test back after three years and Duanne Olivier on debut, shared 11 wickets in this match. There is a lot to work with.
The pitches were a major talking point throughout the series. South Africa got burned last season in India when the home side requested extremely dry turning surfaces and for this series South Africa have followed that example, requesting that groundsmen at each of the three venues leave extra grass on the surface.
“When you’re playing against subcontinent teams it’s important to make it uncomfortable for them,” said Du Plessis. “When you go there, like in India last year, there wasn’t a lot of grass on those wickets.”
Hashim Amla raises his bat to spectators after his ‘amazing’ performance in his 100th Test match, against Sri Lanka. Picture: Reuters
For his part Angelo Mathews didn’t think the surfaces were unfair. “They have every right to do it,” said the Sri Lankan captain. “I don’t think it’s bad for cricket. It’s your home conditions and you use that home advantage to try and win series.”
“From our side we prepared as best we could. Maybe, it would be an idea for us to try and prepare pitches with more grass on them for domestic cricket. But it’s tough with the humidity in Sri Lanka.”
South Africa have two days off - for many of the players not involved in the T20 series it’s an extended break that Du Plessis explained will stand them in good stead ahead of the ODIs later on.
But for today and tomorrow they can bask in the glory of a job well done.