In what was supposed to be a vital game in the context of the World Test Championship standings, South Africa produced a thumping victory over Sri Lanka to jump to second place in the standings.
Here are 3 reasons behind South Africa’s emphatic victory against Sri Lanka in the 1st Test:
1) Temba Bavuma’s gutsy knock in the first innings
Making a comeback after three months, the Proteas’ skipper – Temba Bavuma – played a brave and resilient knock in the first innings of the game. The pitch was incredibly tough to bat on when the game started, and the hosts failed to get going under cloudy conditions.
Temba Bavuma led from the front, and knitted together handy stands with almost everyone.
He scored 70 runs off 117 deliveries, but this knock was probably worth a lot more considering how hard it was for the rest of South Africa’s batters to get some runs.
He came in at 14-2, and left the pitch at 165-9, showing how inspirational an effort it was. Apart from Temba Bavuma, only Tristan Stubbs from South Africa’s top 7 managed to enter a double-digit score.
As things stand, it is evident that Temba Bavuma is doing a commendable job at holding together a fairly inexperienced South African batting lineup.
2) Marco Jansen’s ferocious burst of pace bowling
Sri Lanka started their first innings with a 191-run trail, and they would have fancied themselves to cover the deficit and take the lead. Unfortunately for them, Marco Jansen had different plans.
It took the left-arm pacer only 41 deliveries to rip apart Sri Lanka’s batting. It was a spectacle of pace bowling, leaving the visitors absolutely clueless.
He made full use of the extra bounce on offer, and mixed it up well with the inswinging full deliveries and the outswinging tempters in the channel around fourth and fifth stump.
In no time, he raced away to figures of 7-13. He rushed the Sri Lankan batters for pace, and they were bundled out for just 42.
Coming back from this was going to be a massive ask, and as expected, South Africa capitalized on this lead and ended up posting a near unchaseable target for Sri Lanka.
3) A record-breaking 4th wicket stand for South Africa in their second innings
Having started their second innings with a 149-run lead, South Africa were never under any sort of pressure. If Sri Lanka were to pull off a comeback, they needed early wickets, which they didn’t get.
Things spiraled out of control for the visitors when Temba Bavuma and Tristan Stubbs started to build a partnership that threatened to take the game away from them. The duo seemed unfazed, and played patiently to see the shine off the ball.
The South African skipper, coming off a first innings 70, took off from where he left, and scored his third Test ton in what was a knock defined by his knack for judging lengths early.
Tristan Stubbs, who has been mighty impressive across all three formats playing a different role in each, scored a magnificent century. He played with careful deliberation, and switched gears whenever needed.
A 249-run partnership between this pair put South Africa in a commanding position, with a target of 516 to defend.
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