Rangana Herath captured five wickets as South Africa chasing a daunting target of 450 collapsed in their second innings to lose the Second Test at Durban by a huge margin of 208 runs. The unsung Sri Lankans bounced back to level the 3-Test Series 1-1 with the decider to be played at Cape Town from January 3rd next year.
Sri Lanka with this great performance in the last four days at Kingsmead, Durban finally tasted their maiden Test win on South African soil thanks to left-arm spinner Rangana Herath’s match-haul of 9 for 128. Herath was the Man of the Match for his superb bowling show in both the innings. It was a team effort for Sri Lanka with Samaraweera, Sangakkara scoring centuries, debutant Wicket Keeper batsman Dinesh Chandimal scoring two half centuries and left arm pacer Chanaka Welegedara taking five wickets in the South African first innings.
The fourth day’s started with Sri Lanka resuming their second innings at 256 for 7 and adding 23 more runs before getting bowled out. Dale Steyn completed a 17thfive-wicket haul. Sri Lanka left the Proteas with a huge target of 450 runs.
The Proteas had an early loss as Skipper Graeme Smith (22) fended off a nasty rising delivery from Dilhara Fernando to the slip cordon. Another opener Jacques Rudolph (26) played a loose drive on the up well away from his body off Perera and was brilliantly caught by a diving Mahela Jayawardene in the slips. An uncertain Jacques Kallis was next to fall for a duck, trying out a predetermined paddle sweep and because of the turn and bounce from a Herath delivery, the ball took a top edge, hit the helmet and flew straight to shortleg.
Hashim Amla (51 from 81 balls with 7 fours) after scoring a second half-century in this match ran himself out when he had taken off for a non-existent single towards mid on and was sent back by his partner. Ashwell Prince got out in a similar fashion like his Skipper Graeme Smith, caught in the slips fending off a nasty short ball from Dilhara. Herath with an arm ball hit the pad of Boucher to leave SA reeling at 133 for 6.
The Sri Lankans then ran into a good fighting partnership between AB de Villiers and Dale Steyn for the 7thwicket. Just when the pair seemed to be securing the hosts atleast for the day, came an arm ball with the second new ball from Herath which got AB de Villiers (69 from 141 balls with 6 fours and a six) lbw. Skipper Dilshan got Morkel lbw with an arm ball that defeated a sweep shot and Herath wrapped up the match removing Dale Steyn (43 from 125 balls) and last man Marchant de Lange (0) with a couple of skidding arm balls. South Africa got bowled out for 241 in 87.3 overs with Herath finishing with dominating figures of 30.3-7-79-7.
