South Africa produced an exhibition of blistering seam
and swing in the first innings, followed by nagging persistence in the
second, to nip out 12 of the 18 wickets they needed for victory at the
start of the third day. Dale Steyn and Vernon Philander delivered spells
of unmitigated menace to demolish Sri Lanka's last eight first-innings
wickets for 90 runs, allowing South Africa to enforce the follow-on
around 30 minutes after lunch.
The pair's combined first-innings effort on the third
morning yielded 6 for 28 in 17 overs, and provided a cruel twist to Sri
Lanka's plans of batting through the day. Wickets weren't that easy to
come by in the second innings, following Tillakaratne Dilshan's
customary brainfade, but South Africa chipped away to skim the top order
by stumps.
The wicket-fest left Sri Lanka staring at defeat with two days of good weather expected in Cape Town. Their euphoria after winning the Boxing Day Test has steadily dissipated since the toss at Newlands, and the tone for another day of disappointment was set early in the piece.
Kumar Sangakkara leaned out to the third ball of the morning to square-drive Steyn uppishly to point, where Hashim Amla gleefully pouched the chance. Sangakkara's exit meant Thilan Samaraweera was in the middle much earlier than he'd have bargained for. Philander proceeded to systematically work him over with an exhibition of high quality seam bowling, easily the highlight of the day's action.
Philander hit his default lengths in his very first over, and got a couple to curl away devilishly as Samaraweera groped inside the line. In his next over, he repeated the dose to Mahela Jayawardene, befuddling him with another one that leapt away. Samaraweera nearly covered the line the next time, nudging it off the outer half of the blade towards gully.
The pair's combined first-innings effort on the third
morning yielded 6 for 28 in 17 overs, and provided a cruel twist to Sri
Lanka's plans of batting through the day. Wickets weren't that easy to
come by in the second innings, following Tillakaratne Dilshan's
customary brainfade, but South Africa chipped away to skim the top order
by stumps. The wicket-fest left Sri Lanka staring at defeat with two days of good weather expected in Cape Town. Their euphoria after winning the Boxing Day Test has steadily dissipated since the toss at Newlands, and the tone for another day of disappointment was set early in the piece.
Kumar Sangakkara leaned out to the third ball of the morning to square-drive Steyn uppishly to point, where Hashim Amla gleefully pouched the chance. Sangakkara's exit meant Thilan Samaraweera was in the middle much earlier than he'd have bargained for. Philander proceeded to systematically work him over with an exhibition of high quality seam bowling, easily the highlight of the day's action.
Philander hit his default lengths in his very first over, and got a couple to curl away devilishly as Samaraweera groped inside the line. In his next over, he repeated the dose to Mahela Jayawardene, befuddling him with another one that leapt away. Samaraweera nearly covered the line the next time, nudging it off the outer half of the blade towards gully.
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