SA finally make breakthrough
It took almost three hours of toil, but South Africa finally made the first breakthrough of the day as Vernon Philander trapped Angelo Mathews leg before after lunch on the fourth day of the third and final Test at Newlands.
The previous day they had lost their top and middle order cheaply as they replied to the Proteas’ first innings of 580/4, being dismissed for 239.
They then lost skipper Tillakaratne Dilshan for single fingers to Philander in their follow-on to be 26/1. Lahiru Thirimanne fell after tea at short leg to Jacques Kallis to leave them 83/2.
They lost the wickets of Kumar Sangakkara in the first over of the day and Thilan Samaraweera halfway to lunch. Then Mahela Jayawardene lost his wicket and Mathews was caught behind to leave Sri Lanka reeling.
Dale Steyn had Sangakkara caught by Hashim Amla at backward point off the third delivery of the day, but from then it was honours even as the visitors dug in, until Philander took his 25th wicket courtesy of a Kallis catch at second slip. Steyn picked up Jayawardene, also via Kallis, and Mathews via Mark Boucher.
On the stroke of lunch, Tahir bowled Thisara Perera and directly after Philander had Rangana Herath trapped leg before. Then Philander had Dhammika Prasad caught at backward point by Alviro Petersen.
Finaly, Morne Morkel wrapped up the innings with the wicket of Dinesh Chandimal, caught behind.
The previous day, Morkel bowled Thirimanne and Imran Tahir had Dilshan caught in the deep for a quickfire 78.
Kallis had earlier finally been dismissed for 224, his highest Test score, including 31 fours and a six. This was then followed by AB de Villiers’ 13th century, which embraced 19 fours and two sixes.
The South African batsmen had clearly decided to make hay on another perfect Newlands day, scoring at will against an increasingly toothless Sri Lankan attack.
The records say it all: Kallis now has nine Test centuries at Newlands, where his 2 033 runs in 20 matches is second on the list of best scoring at one venue, behind only Jayawardene’s 2 697 in 24 Tests at Sinhalese Sports Club in Colombo.
Kallis averages over 78 at the ground in the shadow of Table Mountain, just a few kilometres from where he went to school and grew up.
– Latest score: South Africa 580/4 (Kallis 224, De Villiers 160*, Petersen 109, Rudolph 51*). Sri Lanka 239 (Dilshan 78) and 243/5 (Samaraweera 81*, Mathews 63). – Staff Reporter, SportsCentral
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