South Africa has placed themselves in firm control of the second Test at stumps on day three against Sri Lanka in Cape Town.
Chasing an improbable 507, Sri Lanka ended day’s play on 130 for 4 with Captain Angelo Mathews and Vice-Captain Dinesh Chandimal battling hard on 29 and 28 respectively. Sri Lanka need 377 runs to win with two more days remaining in the match but the game is highly likely to end on day four.
Kagiso Rabada took two wickets in successive overs to send Sri Lanka plunging towards defeat as he removed both Kaushal Silva and Dhananjaya De Silva in the space of seven deliveries after they defied the hosts for more than an hour.
Photos: Sri Lanka v South Africa 2nd Test – Day 3
Photos of the Sri Lanka v South Africa 2nd Test – Day 3
Silva made 29 off 70 balls before he lobbed a simple catch to short-leg as the ball rose ferociously. De Silva made a patient 22 while using the long handle against the left-arm spin of Keshav Maharaj but surprisingly opted not to review when Rabada struck the pad low and HawkEye confirmed that it would miss the stumps.
The South Africans were on target right from the word go as Vernon Philander sent Dimuth Karunarathne’s leg stump for a walk in the sixth over. The ball swung back between bat and pad the left-hander attempted to drive as the visitors commenced their inevitable defeat. Kusal Mendis failed yet again at the number 3 position when he edged to slips off Philander for just four runs.
Earlier in the day, the South African openers, Stephen Cook and Dean Elgar added 29 runs to their overnight score of 35. Just when the shoulders of the Sri Lankan fielders started dropping in anticipation of the long hard day ahead of them, Suranga Lakmal provided them the first breakthrough by finding Cook’s edge. Five balls later, he sent back the out of form Hashim Amla as the right-hander edged behind to the wicketkeeper.
Elgar, who made 129 in the first innings, reached his fifty off 82 balls with seven fours but stepped down the track and looked to defend against Rangana Herath, only to edge it to the first slip.
JP Duminy was leg before wicket to Lakmal in the final over before lunch while Temba Bavuma was run out without scoring immediately after the interval when Dhananjaya de Silva hit the stumps at the bowlers end from mid-off.
Lakmal impressed on a flat track to remove captain Faf du Plessis for 41 which was then followed by Quinton de Kock departing for a 24-ball 29 as youngster Lahiru Kumara got his name on the wickets’ column. Keshav Maharaj and Philander pushed the target beyond 500 with some carefree batting before the Proteas’ skipper declared the innings setting a near impossible 507-run target for the visitors. Lakmal was the most impressive seamer taking 4 for 69 bowling almost 20 overs but the home team managed to score 224 for 7 in their second innings.
