Lanka go one up
Forty wickets falling in two and a half days, on an average of five wickets in a session is phenomenal. Chasing 352 for victory on that kind of a wicket is not easy though, South Africa had to face the task as Sri Lanka defeated the world's number two team by a massive 278 runs at the Galle International Stadium yesterday. Thus, Sri Lanka gained an undefeatable advantage going one up in a two Test series.
It was inevitable. The fate of the game was written on the rampart walls of the Galle Stadium from day one and could be visible only by tea time yesterday. Yet, the South Africa batters just swung their bats for the sake of going through the motions. There were no purpose and no fight. In the 25 year history of test cricket between the two countries, not a single South African team has gone down in this manner.
Shot out for 73. It was their lowest in the game since re- admission to the international circuit in 1991. The previous lowest was 79 at Nagpur against India in 2015. However, they have been bowled out for 30, twice in test innings. First it was at Port Elizabeth in 1896 by England and 28 years later history repeated in Birmingham.
Plunging South Africa to such a dreadful hell, Dilruwan Perera claimed six for 32, which was his career best in 30 test matches. The right arm off spinner bagged 10 for 78 in Galle to take his tally of test wickets to 119.
It was Dilruwan (4 for 29) and Rangana Herath ( 2 for 21) who called the tune in Galle before lunch on Saturday. Since then, they never looked back till the game was over and shared nine out of the 10 wickets in the South African second innings.
A forty year old warhorse, Rangana Herath bowled 14 overs in a single spell to claim 3 for 38 before Lakshan Sandakan took only five balls to finish the game off with 13 minutes to tea.
A lot was said about the Galle Stadium in the recent past but to understand what really happened one has to go back and see the full innings replay. All the 20 South African wickets fell due to their poor shot selections, disciplined bowling by spinners and magnificent fielding by the Sri Lankans.
On the same surface, Dimuth Karunaratne carried his bat through to score 158 in the first innings and another 60 in the second. Playing as bowlers, Suranga Lakmal scored an unbeaten 33 in the second innings and Vernon Phillander accumulated 40 runs in two innings.
In contrast, both South African openers were stumped in the second innings. Two most experienced batsmen, Hashim Amla and Fuf Du Plessis offered their wickets on a platter as both of them were out caught.
If anyone has any doubts about the Galle pitch, there's only one thing that he can think of.
Dimuth Karunaratne single handedly scored 218 runs but the entire South African team scored only 199 runs in both innings.