Watch cricket video highlights of Sri Lanka tour of South Africa 2024. 2nd Test between Sri Lanka and South Africa. Venue of the match will be Gqeberha.
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On day four at Gqeberha, South Africa made significant progress toward completing a series thumping, removing Sri Lanka’s top five after setting an enormous 348 to win. As the last day approaches, Sri Lanka has some hope thanks to an uninterrupted 83-run partnership between Dhananjaya de Silva and Kusal Mendis. Lahiru Kumara, Vishwa Fernando, and Asitha Fernando, who were all No. 11s for former Sri Lankan teams, are the final hitters protecting a very incompetent tail. They are still 143 runs short.
In addition to overcoming South Africa’s bowling with the second new ball (expected in 28 overs), Sri Lanka would also need to deal with morning conditions, which have proven more difficult than afternoon or nighttime circumstances thus far in this Test. Perhaps, though, Sri Lanka will draw some strength from their 2019 pursuit in Gqeberha. That time, they had eight wickets remaining and needed 137 to win overnight. The next morning, they reached the mark without losing a wicket. Kusal had been in the forefront of that pursuit.
Here, both he and de Silva were 39 not out at stumps. The most crucial hits for the Sri Lanka chase came from Keshav Maharaj, who was now working with a pitch that was taking some turns on the fourth afternoon. A 53-run partnership between Angelo Mathews and Kamindu Mendis seemed to halt the seam-bowlers’ worst periods. To break the partnership, however, Maharaj snuck a flatter, straighter ball beneath Mathews’ huge slog sweep. In his next over, he had Kamindu caught bat-pad by wicketkeeper Kyle Verreynne, who did a last-ditch effort to reach his glove.
Before de Silva and Kusal defibrillated the innings, Sri Lanka was at a nearly dismal 122 for 5 after the double-strike. The quicks had previously used the new ball to eliminate Sri Lanka’s top three. For the fourth time in the series, Rabada dismissed Dimuth Karunaratne cheaply by rapping him in front of the stumps in the third over. In the 13th over, Pathum Nissanka, who had earlier reversed an LBW ruling against him, stole a wide, swinging, full delivery from Paterson.
Additionally, Paterson would throw Chandimal with an inducker, which, according to Chandimal’s evaluation, would have just slightly injured his leg stump. It was then that he turned 29. Prior to then, Sri Lanka had dominated the day, taking the final seven South Africa wickets for 126 runs. Prabath Jayasuriya, who claimed his tenth five-wicket haul and his first overseas, was primarily responsible for their ability to stay in the game. In many of his 14 day-four overs, he had tangoed with the rough outside the right-hander’s leg stump.
He finished with figures of 5 for 129, taking three wickets for his superb control and variation. Each of the main seamers claimed one day-four wicket. The first dismissal of the day was the most dramatic. Temba Bavuma and Tristan Stubbs had started the day well, reaching 103 after their fourth-wicket partnership. Bavuma then went off for a tight two after clubbing a ball from Lahiru Kumara to deep midwicket. But as Stubbs turned for the second time, he stopped and tried to turn Bavuma back, but it was too late.
For a brief while, the two were caught mid-pitch, allowing Kumara to easily run Stubbs out after returning to the non-striker’s stumps. For 47, he was out. David Bedingham, whom Sri Lanka tested with the short ball with a stacked legside field (he had been dropped twice trying to pull in the first innings), and Bavuma, who had earlier in the day reached his fourth half-century of the series (one of which had also been a hundred), then put on a 41-run stand. Although South Africa survived that time, Bavuma was unable to continue defying Jayasuriya.
As the ball jumped out of the rough, he was bowled while attempting to sweep the spinner. Bavuma has 327 runs for the series with this 66. Bedingham edged Jayasuriya to slip on 35, the ball bouncing off the surface once again to take the outside edge, although batting with far more caution than he had shown in the first innings. Jansen was caught on the deep midwicket boundary while trying to hit out against Jayasuriya.
After lunch, however, South Africa’s tail hit what may out to be important runs, with Paterson, Maharaj, and Rabada combining for five fours and two sixes. In the first innings, when the ninth and tenth-wicket partnerships were worth 89 combined, Sri Lanka had also lost the final two wickets.
