Proteas whitewash Lions as they meekly surrender
South African bowler Kagiso Rabada (C) celebrates after successfully bowling out Sri Lanka batsman Kaushal Silva (not pictured) during the third Test - AFP
Sri Lanka cricket is at its lowest point in years with Angelo Mathew’s men falling in a heap again on Saturday, meekly surrendering the Test series against South Africa.
In another humiliating outing, the Sri Lankans were annihilated inside of three days to lose by innings and 118 runs as Faf du Plessis’s men inflicted our first whitewash in South Africa and also the first since losing 3-0 against Australia in 2012.
Chasing 295 to avoid an innings defeat, the Sri Lankan batsmen fell like ninepins, as they had done through the three-match series, helping South Africa celebrate Hashim Amla’s 100th Test match in style.
It has been hoped that Sri Lanka might fight back in their second innings yesterday after South Africa inflicted the follow-on but they collapsed spectacularly to bowl out for 177 in the second innings to follow up with 131 in the first innings.
Dimuth Karunaratne (50) resisted the inevitable with his first fifty of the series, after being offered a life on one by Dean Elgar at slips and was supported by Upul Tharanga (26) and Suranga Lakmal (31)—a new high in his international career. But this had little impact on the outcome of the match.
While Sri Lanka’s bowling attack managed to silence the multiple big guns in the Proteas’s lengthy batting line-up many times–the only silver lining in the doomed series–the same old top-order batting ills continued to haunt them.
It was that same fatality against seam bowling that was ruthlessly exposed here as South Africa’s four-man seam attack of Vernon Philander, Kagiso Rabada, Wayne Parnell and Duanne Oliver set the Wanderers track ablaze with magnificence to thrash the tourists on the third afternoon. This was supported by some ruthless fielding by the South Africans, particularly skipper Faf du Plessis and wicket-keeper Quinton de Kock who took one-handed catches to remove the Sri Lankan skipper in both innings.
Parnell was the pick of the bowlers with six for 89 runs, having returned to the side after a long lay-off. Rabada and debutant Oliver picked up five wickets apiece with Philander finishing with four to humiliate the Sri Lankans who have struggled to come to terms with South African conditions in the three-match series.
The hosts needed 88.1 overs to take all 20 Sri Lankan wickets that fell in little over seven hours in both innings.
The defeat sent shock waves among the Sri Lankan cricket fans, who had taken to social media to call for a change of guard at the helm, as he has shown little promise as captain in the series.
Mathews had the best batting average for a Sri Lankan scoring 178 runs off six innings with a best of 59 at an average of 29.66, poor run from a top order batsmen but it was his irresolute leadership that had come into question.
Resuming from their overnight score of 80 for 4, Sri Lanka unraveled under overcast skies on a green tangled pitch ideal for bowlers as the South African four-man pace attack ripped through the innings in double-quick time making the Lankans look as if they had gone to war without guns.
Mathews admitted this was his worst defeat as captain and blamed batting for the disgraceful result.
“I being part of many defeats but as captain yes this is certainly the worst defeat,” Sri Lankan skipper said at the post match press conference. “We are extremely disappointed about the results. When it comes to preparations we did our best where even in Sri Lanka we tried to prepare wickets with grass, because we expected that we will get wickets with lots of grass. Unfortunately we could not handle it and the credit should go the South Africans. They outplayed us in all three departments in this game as well as in whole series.”
| ScorebordSouth Africa South Africa 1st innings 426 (J. Duminy 155, H. Amla 134; N. Pradeep 4-78, L. Kumara 4-107) Sri Lanka 1st innings (Overnight: 80-4) D. Karunaratne c de Kock b Philander 0 K. Silva c de Kock b Rabada 13 K. Mendis c Duminy b Rabada 41 D. de Silva c Bavuma b Philander 10 A. Mathews c de Kock b Rabada 19 D. Chandimal c de Kock b Philander 5 U. Tharanga c Elgar b Olivier 24 R. Herath c Cook b Olivier 8 S. Lakmal c Rabada b Parnell 4 L. Kumara not out 1 N. Pradeep c&b Parnell 4 Extras (lb-2) 2 Total (all out, 45.4 overs) 131 Fall of wickets: 1-0 D. Karunaratne, 2-47 K. Silva, 3-62 K. Mendis, 4-70 D. de Silva, 5-90 D. Chandimal, 6-100 A. Mathews, 7-108 R. Herath, 8-126 S. Lakmal, 9-126 U. Tharanga, 10-131 N. Pradeep Bowling: V. Philander 14-5-28-3, W. Parnell 10.4-2-38-2, D. Olivier 9-3-19-2, K. Rabada 12-3-44-3 Sri Lanka 2nd innings |