Review : SA vs SL Test Series

Imran Tahir celebrates

Before the Test series began some cricket fans were saying it will be a walkover for South Africa. Kepler Wessels was even quoted saying “our SA A side can beat this Sri Lankan team”. We have to forgive them because Sri Lanka has been awful in Test cricket post Muralitharan. We all expected a 3-0 series win for South Africa. The Proteas had played tough cricket against Australia a few weeks back and this should have been an easy series for them.

1st Test Supersport Park in Centurion

Graeme Smith won the toss and elected to field on a green looking pitch. Sri Lanka got bowled out twice for less than 200 runs. Philander picked up 10 wickets in the match and was voted Man of the Match. South Africa only batted once in the match. AB top scored with 99, Smith made a solid 61 and Boucher hit a fighting knock of 65 batting with the tail most of the time.It was an easy win inside 3 days. But Morne Morkel struggled with no balls and his rhythm. Prince, Amla and Kallis did not make a big contribution with the bat. Rudolph managed 44.

South Africa won by an innings and 81 runs inside 3 days



2nd Test Kingsmead in Durban

Coming into this match South Africa had a bad record in Kingsmead they also had not won a Test series at home since 2008. Looking at how they had won the 1st Test another easy win was on the cards here going to Cape town. Sri Lanka made only one change from the 1st Test. Wicket-keeper Silva was dropped and in his place came Chandimal to make his Test debut. South Africa was forced to make a bowling change. Philander picked up a knee injury and was replaced by Marchant De Lange also on his Test debut.

Sri Lanka won the toss and chose to bat 1st. SA batted poorly in this match. They got bowled out for 168 and 241. Marchant de Lange got best bowling figures of 7/81 in his 1st Test. Chandimal got 2 half-centuries. Sangakkara and Samaraweera scored their 1st centuries on SA soil. Samaraweera had been a late inclusion in the side. Rangana Herath bowled the best and was named as man of the match. Kallis got 2 ducks and no wickets in the match. He had a match to forget. Sri Lanka won the match by 208 runs inside 4 days and now series was leveled 1-1 with 1 test to go. Dilshan thanked Kepler for his “motivating” words before the series and Jayasuriya said “we chocked them nicely”.


3rd Test Newlands in Cape Town

If the 2nd Test had been Kallis’s worst Test ever, this was going to be his best. South Africa made 2 changes to the side. Alviro Petersen came in and Prince was dropped from the team. Philander came back into the side for Marchant de Lange. Sri Lanka left out Paranavitana for Thirimanne and Prasad came in for Fernando.South Africa batted 1st after Dilshan had won the toss and chose to field. 580 runs later Smith declared. Kallis got his 2nd double century and 1st against Sri Lanka. Alviro opened the innings with Smith and made 109. AB got 160. Rudolph batted at 6 and got a half-century. Sri Lanka failed to avoid the follow on and got bowled out. Smith enforced the follow on. 2nd time round SL set SA 2 runs to get. Kallis picked up the Man of the Match award and AB was Man of the Series.

South Africa won the match by 10 wickets and the series 2-1.

Vernon Philander got 16 wickets in 2 matches. He is the big find of the summer for South Africa. Marchant de Lange also is one for the future. Tahir struggled at times but came into his own on a turning wicket in Newlands. Alviro made a good comeback into the team. The future for Mark Boucher is still uncertain though. It will be interesting to see who is on that plane to New Zealand.