‘Superman’ Perera stars in dramatic Sri Lanka win

DURBAN: Match-winner Kusal Perera insisted “all I did was my role” after his epic 153 not out took Sri Lanka to a dramatic onewicket victory over South Africa in the first Test at Kingsmead on Saturday.

Perera scored 67 of his runs in an unbeaten 78-run last-wicket stand with Vishwa Fernando which gave his underdog team a sensational victory.

“When I was batting with the tail, I knew we couldn’t win this match by just scoring singles,” said Perera after his career-best knock which was already being hailed as one of Test cricket’s greatest innings.

The left-hander managed to keep most of the strike and played some audacious strokes, including two sixes off fast bowler Dale Steyn and one each off Kagiso Rabada, Duanne Olivier and Keshav Maharaj.

“I tried to hit to the closest boundary,” said Perera, who was described as “superman” by opposition skipper Faf du Plessis.

“It was a superman effort. He deserves all the accolades,” said du Plessis.

Perera paid tribute to Fernando who played his part in what was the highest last-wicket stand in a fourth-innings chase in the history of first-class cricket.

Sri Lanka had been mauled in series in New Zealand and Australia and had undergone upheavals in personnel, including the sacking of previous captain Dinesh Chandimal.

Dimuth Karunaratne, captaining Sri Lanka for the first time, said the tours of New Zealand and Australia had helped Sri Lanka prepare for South Africa.

Sri Lanka made sure they could not lose the two-match series but Karunaratne said they would be pushing for a series win in the second Test which starts in Port Elizabeth on Thursday.

South African captain Faf du Plessis defended his tactics of setting wide-spread fields for Perera during the last-wicket stand.

Du Plessis acknowledged that he was likely to be criticised for his decisions.

“There will always be question marks on things that you could have done.

“On any other day he could have got out to one of those top edges that landed in the gaps and you would have said, ‘well bowled’.”