PROTEAS WILT IN THE TROPICAL HEAT

Sri Lanka seal series with second Test win even after brave De Bruyn century on a dry, spitting pitch

Sri Lanka yesterday completed a 2-0 Test sweep of South Africa to record their first series win over the Proteas since 2006 after Rangana Herath wreaked havoc with six wickets.

The visitors were all out for 290 in the second session of day four in Colombo, 200 runs short of the highly improbable winning target of 490 on a bone-dry wicket.

It was SA’s first Test whitewash since they went down in the island nation 2-0 in a twomatch series almost 12 years ago.

Sri Lanka had wrapped up the first Test in Galle within three days, reducing SA to 73 in the second innings – their lowest Test total since the nation’s post-apartheid readmission to international cricket.

“Right through the series we didn’t have that ability to score partnerships. I think we only had three partnerships of 50 and above the whole series,” Faf du Plessis, South Africa’s crestfallen skipper, said yesterday.

“But once again you have to give credit to the opposition. They were able to put us under pressure for long periods of time and therefore we made a lot of mistakes.”

In the second Test, Sri Lanka scored 338 in their first innings and SA could only respond with 124 as versatile off-spinner Akila Dananjaya made hay, taking five wickets. The hosts then scored 275/5 before declaring halfway through the afternoon session on day three, setting SA a highly improbable target.

They were already five wickets down for 139 at stumps on Sunday, with Dananjaya dismissing Du Plessis for seven and left-arm spinner Herath getting Hashim Amla for six.

The SA wickets fell despite a comedy of errors from Sri Lanka, who dropped two catches, wasted both their reviews – on successive balls – and could have had Dean Elgar out twice beforehand had Perera not overstepped. Theunis de Bruyn and Temba Bavuma kept the Sri Lankan spinners at bay putting on a valiant sixth-wicket stand of 123.