The saga of Amla, Dilruwan and Rangana
Though ‘the marathon man’ alias Hashim Amla defied the Lankan threat for nearly eight hours in the sub-continental humid heat with a
memorable inning of an unbeaten 139, it were the Lankan spin duo of Dilruwan Perera and Rangana Herath along with Mahela Jayawardena who have written script in the second Test between Sri Lanka and South Africa at the end of the third day at the Sinhalese Sports Club Ground, Colombo.
The 32-year-old off-spinner followed his eight wicket haul in the failed Galle effort, with another made-to-measure tally of 5 for 59. At the other end, veteran Rangana Herath lived upto his menacing reputation and was ideal foil for Perera. Herath kept his end sewn-up and saw to that the Proteas had no joy working with him on that wicket that assisted spin bowling to finish with figures of 4 for 71. Mind you in the run the two spinners bowled 86.5 overs to make sure that the Lankans finished with a first innings lead of 139 runs.
Now with two more days to go, the decision is on the cards and the Lankans are calling the 
tune. When stumps were drawn Sri Lanka had another eleven runs on the board without losing a wicket. With a 150 run lead – ten wickets at hand, squaring the series looks a real possibility.
Amla put in another sterling batting performance and was in the crease for over eight hours as his marathon 382 ball knock comprised 12 boundaries. Amla’s marathon innings also saw him make his first ever ton against Sri Lanka which was the 22nd of his career spanning just under ten years. He was also the first South African captain to score a century against Sri Lanka.
The day started off with South Africa resuming from their overnight score of 98 for 3 from 52 overs of batting on the second day. The proceedings in the morning session were almost the same as the overnight batsmen skipper Amla and AB de Villers making slow progress.
The duo seemed to be not in a hurry with their sole intention being focused on staying at the wicket as much as possible. However as in the early part of their innings they found negotiating the spin duo Rangana Herath and Dilruwan Perera a bit tough.They succeeded in posting the 50 runs partnership for the third wicket and then Amla racing to his half ton from 140 balls. South Africa with the duo at the wicket reached the 150 run mark which took them a whopping 416 balls.
A double blow at that score by Dilruwan Perera who took two scalps in three balls that of de Villers who made a 37 off 99 balls having added 79 runs for the fourth wicket with Amla and Quinton de Kock two balls later saw them sliding to 150 for 5.
Jean-Paul Duminy who followed was unable to make any impression as he too found handling the spinners too tough, even though he added 25 runs for the sixth wicket with Amla his dismissal at 175 had a contribution of only three runs having plodded for 58 balls.
Vernon Philander too took time to settle down but looked uncomfortable in reading the spinners. Having reached a personal score of nine he became Dilruwan Perera’s fourth victim as he misread a flighted delivery that went through a big gap between bat and pad straight to the off stump.
In between the duo’s partnership of 29 runs Amla raced to his ton sneaking a single off Herath. Amla reached his ton off 253 balls that included ten boundaries and this was his second slowest of the 22 tons that he has made.
Dale Steyn supported his skipper with a knock of 30 in 71 balls cracking two boundaries and two sixes to stretch the South Africa innings further helping to add a valuable 47 runs stand for the eighth wicket.
| ScoreboardSri Lanka 1st innings 421 all out in 121.4 overs (Mahela Jayawardena 165, Niroshan Dickwella 72, Angelo Mathews 63, Kaushal Silva 44) South Africa 1st innings (98/3 overnight) Alviro Petersen c and b Herath 2 (Full on the stumps from around, pushes it straight back to the bowler) Dean Elgar c Silva b Perera 1 (Tosses up on the middle, straightens, bounces and gets an inside edge to short leg) Faf du Plessis c Dickwella b Lakmal 36 (Full down on leg side, tickles it to keeper’s left) Hashim Amla not out 139 AB de Villiers lbw b Perera 37 (Full delivery, pushes forward to defend, misses) Quinton de Kock b Perera 0 (Tosses up on the off, tries to push forward but misses it completely) JP Duminy st Dickwella b Herath 3 (Tried to hit out misses it completely and well stumped) Vernon Philander b Perera 9 (Flighted and angled across full, pushes weakly, ball sneaks through to hit off) Dale Steyn c Sangakkara b Herath 30 (Goes for a big hit, mistimed it and caught at long-off) Imran Tahir c Tharanga b Herath 15 (Tried to whack a full delivery, loops up to deep mid off) Morne Morkel c Silva b Perera 0 (Pushes forward and short- leg snaps up an inside edge) Extras (lb 3, w 1, nb 6) 10 Total (all out; 134.5 overs) 282 Fall of wickets: 1-3 (Petersen, 1.5 ov), 2-13 (Elgar, 8.3 ov), 3-71 (du Plessis, 38.2 ov), 4-150 (de Villiers, 68.4 ov), 5-150 (de Kock, 68.6 ov), 6-175 (Duminy, 89.4 ov), 7-204 (Philander, 98.2 ov), 8-251 (Steyn, 117.5 ov), 9-279 (Tahir, 133.6 ov), 10-282 (Morkel, 134.5 ov) Bowling: Suranga Lakmal 23-7-54-1 (4nb, 1w), Rangana Herath 45-17-71-4, Dilruwan Perera 41.5-11-69-5, Ajantha Mendis 21-1-68-0 (2nb), Kithuruwan Vithanage 4-0-17-0 Sri Lanka 2nd innings Upul Tharanga not out 6 Kaushal Silva not out 5 Extras 0 Total (no wicket; 5 overs) 11 Bowling: Dale Steyn 3-1-7-0, Vernon Philander 2-1-4-0 |
Pix by Amila Gamage