Super bowling does the trick
SOUTH Africa’s bowlers matched the efforts of their batsmen with a disciplined showing on the third day of the final Test at Newlands yesterday, setting up what should be a series clinching victory against Sri Lanka.
The bowlers’ performance, and the fact that there is good back-up in the shape of Marchant de Lange, Wayne Parnell and Lonwabo Tsotsobe, bode well in what is going to be a busy period on the Test front.
On what was still a decent surface for batting at Newlands, and with an imposing total of 580/4 declared on the board, the Proteas attack seldom let up. There was no escaping for the tourists, as they succumbed to be 239 all out in their first innings in the second session, and then finished the third day on 138/4 when they followed on.
Sri Lankan wicketkeeper Dinesh Chandimal, who scored a handy 35 batting at No7, said the South African bowlers’ aggression and consistency of line and length had created pressure that had proved too much for him and his teammates.
“Although the wicket is still good, the South African attack doesn’t give you a chance to relax,” explained Chandimal, who lamented his side’s failure to build on their good game in Durban, where a 208-run victory saw them level the three-match series 1-1. “With the bowlers varying their deliveries, you must concentrate hard… the pressure is always on the batsmen. That’s been (South Africa’s) success.”
This is good news for the Proteas at the start of a 14-month stint in which they will play 14 Tests, against New Zealand (three, away), England (three, away), Australia (three, away), New Zealand (two, home) and Pakistan (three, home).
What was encouraging was that the Proteas’ bowlers effectively squeezed the opposition when conditions were not particularly helpful.
There was not much swing for the faster men, and a switch had to be made to drying up runs to earn wickets. Setting the standard was Vernon Philander, whose morning spell of 6-4-3-1 was a perfect example of how miserly he generally is.
In tandem with leg-spinner Imran Tahir, Philander helped strangle the scoring with a 13over stretch that delivered just 15 runs.
This was in contrast to the Lankans’ free-flowing scoring of Wednesday afternoon, and Philander’s getting Thilan Samaraweera caught at slip yesterday morning was the beginning of the end of the tourists’ first innings. From that point the resistance was crushed, the score dropping from 183/3 to 239 all out in less than 13 overs.
Pundits who had been wondering how well Philander would fare when faced with a pitch which did not offer significant movement off the seam, had their answer as the local boy brought what captain Graeme Smith had termed “structure” to the attack, after missing out in Durban due to a knee injury.
With superb control he probed relentlessly just outside off-stump, and was rewarded with figures of 3/46 in Sri Lanka’s first innings, which took his wicket haul in just his fourth Test, to an impressive 27.
The other man to bag three in the opposition first innings was Philander’s new-ball partner Dale Steyn. His victims included Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene, and by the end of the third day he and Philander were on 14 scalps in the series.
The South Africans’ fielding was generally good, although wicketkeeper Mark Boucher dropping opener Lahiru Thirimanne off Morné Morkel in the second innings – a straightforward chance – will lead to renewed speculation about whether his career is at an end.
Attention will now turn to the five-match one-day series that starts in Paarl on Wednesday. The tourists also play a warm-up game against a Wp-boland invitation XI in Brackenfell on Monday.