PLAYS OF THE DAY

Two catches were dropped off his bowling, but did Suranga Lakmal’s shoulders drop? Not a chance. If anything he seemed to bowl even better. “He is our best bowler,” said Sri Lanka’s bowling coach Champaka Ramanayake. Lakmal has taken 12 wickets at 30.83 in this series. His 5/63 in the first innings of the first Test are career-best figures and they seem to have inspired him. Pay no attention to his final figures of 0/81 from 30 overs in South Africa’s innings in this Test. He was much, much better than that. Ok, he didn’t make quite as explosive a start on his debut as Hardus Viljoen did here last season when he dismissed Alastair Cook with his first ball, but there’s no doubting that Olivier has looked a more rounded bowler in his first Test than Viljoen looked in his. His six overs went for just 13 runs and he supported a rampaging Kagiso Rabada excellently. A pity then that when the chance came for that maiden Test wicket, Olivier couldn’t grasp it, dropping Mendis when he had 41 – as ‘caught and bowled’s’ go it was a simple chance. But on this surface something will come his way again. He’s looked lively in the field and took a fine catch yesterday to dismiss Dhananjaya de Silva but as one smart alec pointed out yesterday: “He’s now taken more catches in this match than he’s scored runs in his last two innings.” It’s hard to comprehend Bavuma’s current struggles, compared with the player who started the season in such sublime fashion. In this series he’s been run out, wrongly given out and yesterday pushed hard at a wide ball with the edge flying to the slips. Yes Rabada was wonderfully aggressive in that spell in the afternoon, and Philander canny and for Sri Lanka in the morning Nuwan Pradeep bowled his best spell in Tests yet, but the hero for the day was Lakmal. They dropped catches off his bowling, he bowled better and quicker and smiled. His teammates, especially Pradeep and young Lahiru Kumara owe him a five-star dinner. “... My attitude has been to try and be as positive as possible in my body language and my mindset to the game. It’s been pretty successful for me this season. My mindset is to try and score, not to survive especially on a wicket like this, where a lot of balls will beat the bat. My mindset is to capitalise when there’s an opportunity.” – JP Duminy