St George’s gives Proteas chance to do soul searching

A shell-shocked Proteas cricket team will arrive in Port Elizabeth on Monday (9am) still wondering how they managed to let the first Test against Sri Lanka slip away in Durban.

South Africa, who were ahead of their opponents for the majority of the Test, were beaten inside four days after a “Roy of the Rovers” performance from Kusal Perera.

The 28-year-old lefthander scored an epic, unbeaten 153 to lead Sri Lanka to a memorable one-wicket triumph on Saturday.

Proteas management will also be mulling over their decision to play one less batsman at Kingsmead by bringing in spinner Keshav Maharaj.

They have a few days during which to work selection matters out before the second and final Test starts at St George’s on Thursday.

The teams will have a rest on Monday before starting their preparations on Tuesday.

Sri Lanka will train from 9.30am until 12.30pm. South Africa are scheduled from 2.30pm to 5.30pm that afternoon and vice versa on Wednesday.

The tourists will have a skip in their step this week after claiming only their second Test victory on South African soil.

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,” Perera said after his career-best knock, which was already being hailed as one of Test cricket’s greatest innings.

“I was the last proper batsman left. When the time felt right for me, I took my chances.”

He 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 Maharaj.

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

“It was a Superman effort. He deserves all the accolades,” Du Plessis said.

Perera said: “I had really wanted to hit two or three sixes off Steyn as we were getting close. Thankfully, I was able to do that. I think my decisionmaking was really good.”

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

“I didn’t even look at the scoreboard when Vishwa came in and we had a lot of runs to get.

“I just tried to play it over by over and get us close, little by little.

“Vishwa told me: ‘I’ll hit the ball with my body, if nothing else. You do what you can.’ I took a lot of strength from that.

“Without any fear, I took the single and gave the strike to him. He did a huge job.”

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.

New skipper Dimuth Karunaratne said the tours of New Zealand and Australia had helped Sri Lanka prepare for South Africa.

“We learnt lots of things on how to play on these kinds of wickets, with pace and bounce,” he said.

He also pointed to Sri Lanka’s record in Durban. On two previous tours they had a win and a draw against an 11-0 losing record on other grounds in South Africa.

Du Plessis defended his tactics of setting wide-spread fields for Perera during the lastwicket stand.

“Some days you just have to say ‘well played’,” Du Plessis said at the post-match media conference.

“Even with the fielders out on the boundary, he still took risks.

“If he’s doing that, even if you bring the field up he’ll do the same.”