Related Links : Sri Lanka Vs South Africa : 1st Test
Ashwell Prince’s first day in the office was far from being impressive with his side crumbling down to post just 169 after winning the toss and electing to bat first. Sri Lanka in reply batted sensibly through Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene to end the opening day’s play of the 1st Test Match at SSC, Colombo at 128 for 2. Sri Lanka would be trying their level best to build up a huge first innings total to bat the Proteas out of the game. But the first hour of play on the second day morning is going to be crucial with South Africa having two tear away quicks in Makhaya Ntini and Dale Steyn, who could run through any batting line up on their day. It was the pair of Dilhara Fernando and Muttiah Muralitharan that ripped apart the South African batting early on.
The Sinhalese Sports Club in Colombo is one ground that assists movement for the pace bowlers during the first hour of play and Ashwell Prince took a bold decision in batting first. South Africans decided to include all rounder Andrew Hall in place of Boeta Dippenaar and Sri Lanka included Prasanna Jayawardene, the wicket keeper to relieve Kumar Sangakkara of the taxing glove work and concentrate only on his batting. The only man left out in the 12-man squad was the leg spinner Malinga Bandara. South Africa’s start was promising but with the first change in the bowling brought in the form of Dilhara Fernando, things stared to happen for the Lankans. First to go was Andrew Hall (17), whose furniture was disturbed after he got an inside edge while trying to drive Dilhara Fernando’s big inswinger on the rise through covers. Herschelle Gibbs was also dismissed in a similar fashion, but this time the movement was a bit too much to go onto miss the inside edge and crash straightaway onto the stumps. Gibbs’s comeback in the South African Squad wasn’t successful atleast for this innings as he was out for 19 with South Africa at 45 for 2. Rudolph and Amla then steadied the ship and took South Africa through to lunch without any further alarms and SA were at a shaky 78 for 2.
The post lunch session saw Rudolph (29) playing a loose shot outside his offstump to present Farveez Maharoof with his first wicket and that was followed with Prince’s exit which came just like Rudolph’s. Maharoof was a lucky bowler getting two wickets off deliveries that were just slanting across the left handers. Sri Lanka at this stage were truly on top of South Africans and with Muralitharan bowling from one end, the Proteas struggled to score the runs. Hashim Amla’s stay at the crease ended too with the youngster looking to turn Murali to the onside and got stranded with that delivery being a doosra that turned away to give Prasanna Jayawardene an easy stumping. Amla made 19 after being there for 64 balls and with his downfall, South Africa were 112 for 5. Boucher didn’t last long to support AB de Villiers’ fight and the wicket keeper batsman fell after getting a top edge in his sweep shot to Muralitharan. AB de Villiers was the lone man trying to get something on the board for the Proteas and he took on Muralitharan with some well controlled sweep shots and he got quite a few bad deliveries from the pacers at the other end. Nicky Boje was given out lbw to a doosra which looked to be going over the top of the stumps, nevertheless it was the third wicket of the day for Murali and Dilhara Fernando at the other end sent back the tail enders Andre Nel and Dale Steyn by bowling right up onto the stumps. AB de Villiers was the last man out after scoring 65 holing down to the man on the boundary on the onside to Muralitharan. The South African innings lasted for just over 50 overs and with that Tea was taken.
South Africa could still come back in the game with their bowling fire power and Dale Steyn gave the impressions of a fightback as he produced two quick deliveries when the Lankans came out to bat to dismiss both the openers. Jayasuriya was the first wicket to go down after the veteran was late in getting his bat in line of the ball and got struck in front of the stumps. Tharanga was removed with a short delivery to which the left hander gloved it to the keeper in an attempt to go for the pull. Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawadene then played beautifully to take the game forward for Sri Lanka. Both batsmen dished out their strokes to get the game under control for the homeside. Sri Lanka ended at 128 for 2 with bad light bringing a halt to the play and robbing 13 overs of the play. Both Sangakkara and Jayawardene have scored unbeaten half centuries. Kumar Sangakkara has done his job for the day playing in the side as a pure batsman and he was lucky to be there after being put down at point by Rudolph when he was just on 1 and after a while being bowled off a noball. Dale Steyn was the bowler on both occasions. In the end, it was Sri Lanka all the way with South Africa being dominated with both bat and the ball and the Lankans are now just 41 runs behind SA.