Proteas staring down the barrel
KARUNARATNE A THORN IN TOURISTS’ SIDE
The Proteas will be looking to at least two of their senior batsmen to match the mastery of Sri Lanka’s Dimuth Karunaratne if the visitors are to bid for a famous come-from-behind victory in the first Test at Galle.
On the face of it the home side held an almost impregnable position at stumps on day two yesterday with an overall lead of 272 runs with six second-innings wickets intact and three days remaining in which to force a result.
But a closer look at the scorecard reveals just what a dominant
role the Sri Lankan opener has played. He followed his unbeaten 158 in the first innings with an invaluable 60 in the second to give him a match aggregate of 218 out of the 398 runs Sri Lanka have made in total.
Equally revealing is the fact that Faf du Plessis’ 49 is the next best effort with no other batsman on either side having reached even 30.
It will be no easy task to do this on a surface on which the spinners are playing an increasingly dominant role. The three Sri Lankan spinners took seven wickets between them in the Proteas’ first innings, headed by Dilruwan Perera’s 4/46, while Keshav Maharaj
has got back to his best form taking three of the four home wickets to have fallen so far in their second innings (3/27 in 16 overs).
The fourth wicket fell to Kagiso Rabada, giving him an impressive five wickets so far.
Today’s morning session will be a key one as the Proteas clearly need to take the last six wickets as quickly as possible. This is underlined by the fact that the highest fourth-innings total at this ground is exactly 300 (by Pakistan) – and that was in a losing cause.
And with so much time left in this match a draw looks to be the most unlikely outcome at this stage.