Twitter Reactions: Sri Lanka script a historic series win over South Africa in Port Elizabeth
Kusal Mendis was named the Man of the Match.
Sri Lanka became the first Asian team to win a Test series in South Africa. They had escaped with a sensational win in Durban but the visitors proved that it wasn’t a fluke and pounced in on the opportunity to put the pressure on the under-pressure Proteas batsmen. The game ended only in the first session of the third day and to everyone’s surprise, South Africa couldn’t pick even a single wicket.
Sri Lanka resumed at 60/2 on Saturday and there were hopes for the home side with the way things had panned out so far in the Test. But the duo of Kusal Mendis and Oshada Fernando did extremely well to deny them any wicket. After being watchful for the first few overs, they took the attack to the opposition. Mendis was especially superb with his knock as he slammed three fours off Dale Steyn with disdain to clear his intentions.
Fernando, on the other hand, played second fiddle and didn’t spare the simple deliveries. The South African bowlers tried their hearts out but two talented batsmen were at the mission and they didn’t deter.
Maharaj’s failure final nail in the coffin
The Faf du Plessis-led South Africa looked stunned with the way Sri Lanka were batting as they were expected to pick wickets in the first hour on the morning. After all his pace bowlers failed to even stem the run-flow, Du Plessis introduced Keshav Maharaj into the attack having still 89 runs in the kitty.
Interestingly, this spurred up the batsmen even more. They were well set and though a couple of false shots created chances, the ball only fell in the no-man’s land for the agony of the home side. In the end, the shoulders dropped as the target was being gunned down with utter ease and both the batsmen remained unbeaten until the end. Both Oshada and Mendis scored half-centuries and made sure there was no collapse with the history beckoning.
Here’s how Twitter reacted to the historic series win for Sri Lanka:
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