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Ken Borland



Herath praises team effort 0

Posted on December 29, 2011 by Ken

A laughing Rangana Herath said it was a whole team effort that had turned Sri Lanka’s fortunes around as they won the second test against South Africa by 208 runs at Kingsmead after losing the first test at Centurion by an innings.
    “It was a whole team effort, that’s why we won. We’re very happy because we bowled them out for less than 170 and we played our brand of cricket. We didn’t do anything different,” Herath told a news conference on Thursday.
    Left-arm spinner Herath, who took five for 79 and nine wickets in the test, said his success was down to “sticking to the basics”.
    Sri Lanka captain Tillekaratne Dilshan said it was one of his career highlights to come to Durban and level the series after losing so emphatically at Centurion.
    “It’s one of the greatest days for my career to beat South Africa in South Africa. It showed that if we can play our brand of cricket, we can beat one of the best teams.
    “It’s a fantastic feeling and great for Sri Lankan fans. As the captain, I am very proud, especially after losing the first test so badly. We will definitely celebrate, we can enjoy ourselves … it might be all night,” Dilshan said.
    South Africa captain Graeme Smith said the Sri Lankans had adapted better to the pitch and executed their skills more accurately than the hosts.
    “We were just outplayed from the start, we didn’t adapt to the conditions. The pitch was a bit slower than usual and reverse-swing and spin played more of a role. We’ve had good pace and seam in the last three tests, but there wasn’t as much carry here and the pitch was slower.
    “But we have no excuses about the surface, we did not match their skills on this type of pitch and our execution wasn’t great. They were better than us,” Smith said.
    The South African social media was abuzz with people calling for wholesale changes to the Proteas team and there was even a rumour on the Twitter network that Smith would resign the captaincy.
    “That’s not the case, as long as Gary Kirsten and the team want me to lead, I will do the job to the best of my ability. Whenever you lose, disappointing things circulate, but that story was too much,” Smith said.
    “When you lose, it’s natural that the selection debate starts, but it’s the selectors’ call and it depends on where they see the team going. But it’s not just for one test, it’s the next six months that matter and our tours to New Zealand and England.
    “At the moment, there’s obviously a lot of emotion around the situation, but there needs to be good reflection and solid decisions made – not emotional selections,” the losing captain said.

Herath earns Sri Lanka shock win 0

Posted on December 29, 2011 by Ken

Diminutive left-arm spinner Rangana Herath took five wickets as Sri Lanka beat South Africa by 208 runs on the fourth day of the second test at Kingsmead on Thursday.

    It was Sri Lanka’s first test victory in South Africa in nine attempts and follows their defeat by an innings at Centurion in the first test. The islanders have also been through a 15-match winless streak since the retirement of world record wicket-taker Muttiah Muralitharan.

    South Africa were chasing a highly unlikely 450 for victory, but their batsmen once again let them down as they were bowled out for 241 with nine balls left in the day’s play.

    The hosts’ top-order collapsed dismally after lunch, slumping to 133 for six before AB de Villiers and Dale Steyn fought hard for two-and-a-quarter hours.

    Herath was the star performer, taking five for 79 in 30.3 overs, giving him nine wickets in the test and the man of the match award.

    But pace bowler Dilhara Fernando (13-3-29-2) can also take credit for bowling South Africa out in two-and-a-half sessions.

    De Villiers and Steyn added 99 for the seventh wicket and looked set to see South Africa through to stumps before Herath returned with a second new ball that was just three overs old.

    He quickly trapped De Villiers lbw for 69 with an arm-ball, ending a determined innings by the South African vice-captain. De Villiers faced 141 balls and he hit six fours and a six.

    Morne Morkel then slogged at part-time spinner Tillekeratne Dilshan, missed and was out leg-before for five.

    With bad light threatening to end play for the day, Herath then removed Steyn, for an impressive, fighting innings of 43, and last man Marchant de Lange (0) in the space of three balls to end the match.

    Sri Lanka were closing in on victory as the hosts collapsed to 136 for six at tea, Jacques Kallis completing the first pair of his test career as South Africa lost five wickets for 50 runs in the afternoon session.

Kallis faced six balls without getting off the mark, before top-edging a sweep at Herath into his helmet, from where the ball looped to short-leg.

Kallis, playing in his 149th test, was initially given not out by umpire Steve Davis, but Sri Lanka had the decision overturned on appeal.

Jacques Rudolph (22) had chased the fourth ball after lunch from Thisara Perera, edging a wide ball into the slips, where Mahela Jayawardene took another fine catch.

Hashim Amla looked set to play a major innings as he reached 51, but he dashed off for a quick single to mid-on off Herath, which was turned down by Ashwell Prince, leaving him stranded.

Prince was out for seven half-an-hour later when a lifter from Fernando forced him to edge a catch into the slips; and Mark Boucher battled hard before being trapped lbw by Herath, also for seven.

Rudolph and Amla had taken South Africa to 86 for one at lunch after being asked to chase what would have been a world-record winning score to prevent Sri Lanka levelling the three-match series.

South Africa comfortably reached 37 without loss before Fernando extracted steep bounce and forced captain Graeme Smith (26) to edge a slip catch to Jayawardene.

Earlier, Steyn took two of Sri Lanka’s last three wickets as the tourists added just 23 runs to their overnight total before they were dismissed for 279 in their second innings.

Steyn ended with figures of five for 73 in 20 overs to complete the 17th five-wicket haul of his test career.

    The third and final test is in Cape Town from January 3. 


Another bitter Kingsmead failure for SA batsmen 0

Posted on December 27, 2011 by Ken

 

South Africa’s batsmen suffered another bitter Kingsmead failure as left-armers Chanaka Welegedara and Rangana Herath ran through them on the second day of the second test against Sri Lanka on Tuesday.

 

    Welegedara claimed career-best figures of five for 52 in 16.4 overs, while spinner Herath took four for 49 as South Africa were bowled out for just 168, giving Sri Lanka a first-innings lead of 170.

 

    Sri Lanka lost the wicket of captain Tillakaratne Dilshan, caught in the slips off Dale Steyn for four, and reached seven for one in their second innings before the umpires stopped play due to bad light.

 

    South Africa, who have lost their last three tests at Kingsmead, collapsed dramatically after tea, losing their last seven wickets for 65 runs.

 

    Several of them were dismissed playing loose strokes, with AB de Villiers (25) steering the fifth ball after tea, from Welegedara, straight to second slip, to give South Africa the worse possible start to the final session.

 

    Hashim Amla (54) edged a flatfooted prod outside off stump at Welegedara to wicketkeeper Dinesh Chandimal, while Ashwell Prince (11) was caught trying to reverse-sweep Herath.

 

    Herath also picked up the wickets of Mark Boucher for three and Morne Morkel for a duck as South Africa crashed to 119 for eight. They only managed to avoid the follow-on because the tailenders managed to hang about.

 

    Imran Tahir scored 11 before one of his few attempts to defend the ball resulted in him being stumped off Herath, while last man Marchant de Lange was caught behind for nine off Welegedara.

 

    Steyn decided that attack was the best form of resistance as he struck two fours and two sixes in his 29 not out.

 

    But South Africa’s ignominous collapse followed totals of 138 against Australia and 133 versus England in Durban in 2009; and 131 all out against India a year ago.

 

    Sri Lanka were forced to come out and bat for 2.1 overs in gloomy light, with the floodlights on, and Dilshan clubbed a four over cover-point before edging Steyn’s next delivery to second slip.

 

    Tharanga Paranivatana, who is yet to score, and Kumar Sangakkara, on three, will be there to build on Sri Lanka’s considerable lead on the third morning.

 

    Amla’s counter-attacking half-century had steered South Africa to 100 for three at tea, after the home team had slumped to 27 for three.

 

Welegedara started the rot with two wickets in four balls, removing Graeme Smith for 15 and Jacques Kallis for a duck.

 

Jacques Rudolph fell for seven when he pulled a short, leg-side delivery from Thisara Perera to fine-le,g where Welegedara lunged forward to take a good catch.

 

Earlier, fast bowler De Lange grabbed seven wickets on his debut, while Thilan Samaraweera compiled his 13th test century as Sri Lanka chalked up 338, their biggest total in South Africa.

 

De Lange took seven for 81 as Sri Lanka were bowled out 35 minutes before lunch. The 21-year-old’s figures are the best by a South African against this opposition – surpassing Shaun Pollock’s six for 30 in Cape Town in 2000-01.

 

Samaraweera, 35, scored 102 to steer Sri Lanka past their previous best total of 323 at Centurion in 2002-03.

 

De Lange’s burst of three wickets in eight balls cut short Sri Lanka’s resistance after they had resumed on 289 for seven.

 

Samaraweera, who resumed on 86, continued to bat in a controlled fashion as he and Herath put on 46 for the eighth wicket.

 

De Lange then cleaned up the tail by removing Herath (30) and Welegedara (2) with nasty, lifting deliveries.

 

Samaraweera was last man out, caught by deep cover Prince off the young paceman.

 

South Africa lead the three-match series 1-0.


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