Stuart Hess lists his plays of the day from Day 3 of third Test at the Wanderers Stadium.
Mayhem from Mendis
It was a case of a shot a ball from young Kusal Mendis on Saturday. When he missed, it was ugly; when he connected, the results were stunning. But it was not a method that would be long-lasting. One lofted drive over extra cover off Rabada brought gasps from the 13000-strong crowd, another square drive off the back foot against Philander was of the highest order, too. But there was no way he could continue to do that and extend the game. It wasn’t dull but it wasn’t built to last either.
Bowled him!
Until Mendis got bowled off the inside edge on Saturday, there had been a sequence of 20 wickets falling to catches. Stephen Cook’s lbw in the first hour on Thursday morning was the previous wicket not to be caught. That stat is brought to you by the cricket anorak’s society.
Hanging Faf
So, Faf climbs this invisible ladder, you see, but it doesn’t quite go high enough. So Faf sticks out his hand, you see, and instead of the ball being at the boundary, it’s stuck in his right hand. Faf kneels to celebrate, his teammates lift him up as if he’s a lock in a line-out. Mind-blowing catch.
Quintessentially Quinton
While Faf leapt high, Quinton dived to his right, low, a long, long way to his right. So far right that he didn’t initially control the ball, which deflected off his glove, but not so far that he couldn’t handle it. A stunner. There was also a nonchalant “picking apples” take to start off the second innings. All in all, he’s turning into a very good wicket-keeper.
Crazy 88
That’s how many overs Sri Lanka managed to bat in this Test match - officially less than a day’s worth of batting. They might want to blame the pitch but then South Africa will turn around and say, “two of our guys made centuries”. The fact is that throughout this series, Sri Lanka have failed to apply themselves properly, and that has been no more clearly illustrated than the performances of Dinesh Chandimal, one of their most experienced and best batsmen who averaged 14.1 with a highest score of 30.
He said
“I’ve been practicing that; I try and jump up and catch ‘reverse cup’. The good thing was, we were standing in the slips, myself, Dean, Hashim and Quinny, and I was saying that with the bounce in this wicket, there’s going to be one that’s going to fly and I’m calling it, I’m going to have to do one of those ‘Duppie’ specials. I practice it; hopefully I can do it a bit more.” - Faf du Plessis about that ridiculous one-handed grab to get rid of Mathews on Saturday. He also seemed to like that we can now call him the “Flying Dutchman”.