South Africa 191 (Bavuma 70, Asitha 3-44, Kumara 3-70) and 366 for 5 dec (Stubbs 122, Bavuma 113) beat Sri Lanka 42 (Jansen 7-13) and 282 (Chandimal 83, Dhananjaya 59, Jansen 4-73) by 233 runs
South Africa have moved to second place on the World Test Championship (WTC) table after a 233-run victory over Sri Lanka in Durban to break the visitors' unbeaten record at the venue. Marco Jansen finished with 11 wickets in the game with 4 for 73 in the second innings.
After setting Sri Lanka a target of 516 and taking five wickets on the third evening, South Africa may have expected play on the fourth day to be nothing more than a formality. But they were made to work for their win after half-centuries from Dinesh Chandimal and Dhananjaya de Silva and 48 from Kusal Mendis made them toil until deep into the second session. Sri Lanka were eventually bowled out for 282, an improvement on their first-innings effort by multiples.
Ultimately, they will look back at the 78 minutes of madness, in which they were bowled out for 42, as where the match was lost. It gave South Africa a 149-run first-innings lead, the best batting conditions of the match and the cushioning to build a big lead at their own pace. They then got to work defending it.
Under blue skies and with a dry wind blowing, the pitch was placid on day four as well and Sri Lanka took advantage. Chandimal and Dhananjaya put on a sixth-wicket stand of 95 runs before Chandimal and Mendis combined for 75 against a South African attack that was without the injured Wiaan Mulder and the movement of the first three days.
Still, South Africa started threateningly when Kagiso Rabada beat Dhananjaya's edge with the fifth ball of the morning and Gerald Coetzee found it with the 12th. The chance fell to the left of Jansen at gully. Dhananjaya responded by piercing the midwicket gap to hit Rabada for four and pulling Coetzee in front of square. Chandimal also dealt with a Coetzee short ball well and cut him for four through point.
Rabada bowled a five-over spell that cost 18 runs without success, and once he was off, Sri Lanka's pair could settle in. Dhananjaya drove Jansen through the covers, Chandimal whacked him in the same area to bring up the 150 and they both took on Maharaj, who got almost no turn. By the first drinks break, Sri Lanka had scored 61 runs in 16 overs at a rate of just under four to the over.
Chandimal brought up his fifty immediately after the interval with an authoritative pull off Jansen and Dhananjaya reached his milestone in the next over, off 66 balls, a sign of the aggression with which he batted. He played one more shot in anger when he hit Maharaj over long-off for six. Maharaj had the last laugh, though, when Dhananjaya chipped an innocuous delivery to Tristan Stubbs at short midwicket for 59.
That brought Mendis, on the back of four ducks in South Africa, to the crease. He got his first runs in five innings with a cover drive that went for four, and also raised the Sri Lankan 200. He was nearly run out later in the over when he took off for a run without conferring with Chandimal but made it back in time.
South Africa brought back Rabada for a pre-lunch burst but a selection of short balls were well negotiated. Rabada also took his no-ball count for the innings to 10, with five in the morning session as Sri Lanka went to lunch on 220 for 6. They scored 117 runs in 32 overs in an extended first session.
The 10 overs post lunch were laced with gifts from South Africa as Sri Lanka piled on 47 runs helped by a team that could afford to try things, given the runs at their disposal. Without a gully in place, Mendis square drove Jansen for four and then took 15 runs off his 19th over, as Jansen missed his lengths completely. Maharaj was also on the receiving end of Mendis' aggression as he moved in sight of a half-century.
Not long into his third spell, Coetzee sent down a half-volley down leg and it seemed South Africa could get nothing right either side of the pitch. His next ball was on middle and Chandimal tried to flick it away but closed the face of the bat too early and got a leading edge back to Coetzee. He let his relief out into the pitch with a series of throat-curdling screams.
In the next over, Maharaj drew Vishwa Fernando forward and had him caught at slip by Aiden Markram. Jansen was brought back and he cleaned things up when he had Mendis caught behind to take his 10th for the match and bowled Asitha Fernando as he tried to cover the line of a ball sliding down leg. Jansen's 11 for 86 are the second-best figures at Kingsmead after Clarrie Grimmett's 13 for 173 in 1936.
