South Africa thrash SL to fuel World Test Championship bid

DURBAN: South Africa´s chances of reaching the World Test Championship final received a boost when they completed a 233-run over Sri Lanka on the fourth day of the first Test at Kingsmead on Saturday.

The result lifted South Africa to second place in the WTC table, which is calculated on average points earned.

With their remaining three matches to be played at home - the second Test against Sri Lanka followed by two against Pakistan - South Africa are well-placed to qualify for the final at Lord´s in London next June if they carry on winning.

“That´s always been one of our goals as a team,” said South African captain Temba Bavuma.

“The conversation has always been there. We´ve not been loud about it but that conversation will probably become more alive now.”

Set a massive 516 runs to win, Sri Lanka were bowled out for 282.

Left-arm fast bowler Marco Jansen, the destroyer in Sri Lanka´s record-low first innings of 42, took four for 73 to finish with match figures of 11 for 86. He was named player of the match.

Bavuma said conditions had changed considerably during the match, in which South Africa battled to make 191 in the first innings before Sri Lanka were blown away in 13.5 overs, with Jansen taking seven for 13.

South Africa brought back Rabada for a pre-lunch burst but a selection of short balls were well negotiated. Rabada also took his no-ball count for the innings to 10, with five in the morning session as Sri Lanka went to lunch on 220 for 6. They scored 117 runs in 32 overs in an extended first session.

The 10 overs post lunch were laced with gifts from South Africa as Sri Lanka piled on 47 runs helped by a team that could afford to try things, given the runs at their disposal. Without a gully in place, Mendis square drove Jansen for four and then took 15 runs off his 19th over, as Jansen missed his lengths completely. Maharaj was also on the receiving end of Mendis’ aggression as he moved in sight of a half-century.

Not long into his third spell, Coetzee sent down a half-volley down leg and it seemed South Africa could get nothing right either side of the pitch. His next ball was on middle and Chandimal tried to flick it away but closed the face of the bat too early and got a leading edge back to Coetzee. He let his relief out into the pitch with a series of throat-curdling screams.

In the next over, Maharaj drew Vishwa Fernando forward and had him caught at slip by Aiden Markram. Jansen was brought back and he cleaned things up when he had Mendis caught behind to take his 10th for the match and bowled Asitha Fernando as he tried to cover the line of a ball sliding down leg. Jansen’s 11 for 86 are the second-best figures at Kingsmead after Clarrie Grimmett’s 13 for 173 in 1936.

“We were in a tough position and we knew we had to dig deep,” said Bavuma. “We were quite confident that if they could put us under pressure with the ball we could do the same to them.

“We weren´t expecting things to go so quickly but we knew the conditions (for bowling) were in our favour and that we could exploit them.” Referring to the Test championship, Bavuma said his team needed to continue to focus internally on what they needed to do, rather than be concerned about factors beyond their control.

Sri Lankan captain Dhananjaya de Silva said the first innings had been decisive - “our bowling as well as our batting.”

He said Sri Lanka could have bowled better to restrict South Africa to around 120, although he paid tribute to Bavuma, who scored 70 in the first innings and 113 in the second.

The collapse to 42 all out against a “brilliant” Jansen happened so quickly, he said, that “we didn´t have time to think. We had better plans in the second innings.”

In contrast to the first innings, the tourists made the South Africans work for their wickets on Saturday.

Dinesh Chandimal (83) and De Silva (59) put on 95 for the sixth wicket and kept South Africa in the field for most of the morning after resuming at 103 for five.

The breakthrough for South Africa came when De Silva chipped a catch to midwicket off left-arm spinner Keshav Maharaj.

Kusal Mendis made an attacking 48 before he became Jansen´s 10th victim of the match. The second Test starts at Gqeberha on Thursday.