SA v SL 2nd Test Review: South Africa roll over the Lankans to register 282-run win

South Africa continued their dominating performance in the ongoing Test series against Sri Lanka and completed a comprehensive victory by 282 runs in the 2nd Test at Newlands, Cape Town to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the 3-match series. Youngster Kagiso Rabada was brilliant with the ball and finished with excellent figures of 6/55 in a mere 17 overs. While captain Angelo Mathews chipped in with 49, Rangana Herath made an unbeaten 35 lower down the order to delay the South African victory.

Beginning the penultimate day’s play at 130/4, Sri Lanka lost Dinesh Chandimal early as yet again the experienced batsman fell to an irresponsible shot. It wasn’t the greatest of deliveries by any stress of imagination but still Chandimal managed to flick it straight to Stephen Cook stationed just in front of square.

Upul Tharanga joined Mathews in the middle and struck 3 delightful boundaries during his short stay. The southpaw went after an outside the off stump delivery from Rabada which was bowled at short of length area. The ball kept a little low and took the under edge from the flashing blade. With 6 wickets down, the visitors lost their captain Mathews on the final ball of the same over on 49. It was a short of the length delivery outside the off as Mathews tried to drive off the backfoot. He was done by some extra pace and bounce and took the edge to safely carry to Quinton de Kock behind the stumps.

There was no respite for the visitors as wickets kept tumbling in regular intervals as Sri Lanka looked down the barrel. With the score at 166/7 Suranga Lakmal joined veteran spinner Rangana Herath in the middle. Lakmal couldn’t survive the lethal spell from Rabada and was dismissed cheaply. It was again a short of a length delivery and Lakmal was done by the extra bounce and feathered it straight to de Kock behind the stumps.

Also check out – Twitter Reactions: Younis Khan fights hard as Pakistan stares down at follow-on

Herath struck some lusty blows off Keshav Maharaja to get Sri Lanka past the 200 mark before Rabada and Maharaj came back strongly to help South Africa win the match by a massive margin of 282 runs. While Lahiru Kumara was dismissed by Maharaj as he stepped out to hit the ball out of the boundary. He missed it altogether and Quinton de Kock completed an easy stumping behind the stumps.

Nuwan Pradeep was the last wicket to fall as he failed to read a peach of an outswinger from Vernon Philander which moved away and hit the top of the off stump. It was a terrific bowling display by the Proteas, especially Kagiso Rabada who finished with 6 wickets. Vernon Philander and Keshav Maharaj were the other wicket takers who chipped in with 3 wickets and a single wicket each. Rabada was adjudged the Man of the Match for his exceptional performance in the match and finished with outstanding match figures of 10/92.

It was a pathetic display from the visitors as they were outplayed in each and every department in both the Tests. With 6 days to go for the 3rd and the final Test at Johannesburg, the visitors will look to play with freedom more so when the series is already gone.

Brief Scores:

South Africa: 392 (Dean Elgar 129, Quinton de Kock 101, Lahiru Kumara 6/122 &

224/7d (Dean Elgar 55, Suranga Lakmal 4/69)

Sri Lanka: 110 (Upul Thranga 26*, Vernon Philander 4/27) & 

224 (Angelo Mathews 49, Kagiso Rabada 6/55)