Ken Borland

South Africa had a 1-0 series lead safely tucked away in their property as they completed an innings-and-45-runs victory over Sri Lanka half-an-hour after lunch on the fourth day of the first Test at SuperSport Park in Centurion on Tuesday.

With this being just a two-match series, it means the Proteas are assured of not losing their fourth successive Test series.

The injury-decimated Sri Lankans were eventually put out of their misery on 180 with Dhananjaya de Silva the only batsman who eventually did not come to the crease.

Fast bowlers Lutho Sipamla and Anrich Nortje claimed the last two wickets as South Africa’s four pacemen took two wickets apiece and there was a run out.

The Proteas began the post-lunch session with two spinners in an attempt to lift their lagging over-rate, but once Sipamla returned, he had Wanindu Hasaranga caught as the plucky debutant tried to drive him down the ground. Hasaranga had belted 59 off just 53 balls, with 12 fours and a six.

Nortje then induced a catch in the gully from Kasun Rajitha (0) and South Africa will go into the second Test at the Wanderers with much to build on.

South Africa put themselves on the verge of victory in the morning session as they were able to tear through the visitors’ batting line-up, taking five wickets as Sri Lanka limped to lunch on 148 for seven, still trailing by 77 runs.

While Lungi Ngidi had been the wicket-taker on the third evening as Sri Lanka went to 65 for two overnight, it was seamer Wiaan Mulder who did most of the damage on the fourth morning with a fine spell of nine overs, two for 29.

He made the first breakthrough of the day when he jagged a delivery back through Dinesh Chandimal’s gate, hitting the top of off stump and bowling him for 25. Mulder bowled particularly well to the left-handers and then had Niroshan Dickwella caught behind for 10, using the natural angle from over the wicket to good effect.

Opener Kusal Perera was still there, however, and landed some tremendous blows as he belted 64 off 87 balls, taking on the Proteas pacemen with the same belligerent attitude as in his famous matchwinning innings in Durban in 2019.

It was Nortje who removed the dangerman, however, winning a caught-behind decision against the left-hander with umpire Adrian Holdstock’s not out decision being overturned on review as a thin edge was picked up on UltraEdge.

Sipamla, who has just been getting better and better after a tough first day at the office, then produced a superb delivery to dismiss first-innings fifty-maker Dasun Shanaka for just 6. The fast bowler angled a nice and full delivery into the right-hander and it then nipped away, finding the edge as the batsman went on a big flatfooted drive, wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock pouncing on the catch.

A chaotic run out, Vishwa Fernando (0) showing poor awareness of the situation as he went for a quick single with the injured Hasaranga, then completed another poor session for the Sri Lankans.

The monotony of Lockdown has sent many people out to lunch but for Quinton de Kock the same simple ‘see ball, hit ball’ approach that makes him such a great cricketer has seen him get through the winter so far in typically phlegmatic fashion.

Named CSA’s Men’s Cricketer of the Year at the weekend, De Kock said he has not hit a single ball since the end of last season, but is comfortable that there is plenty of time for him to launch a reinvigorated assault on the bowlers of the world.

In 2019/20, De Kock scored 536 runs in seven Tests at an average of 38.28, with one century and four fifties, while he has also averaged 38, with one century and four half-centuries, in 15 ODIs in the last year. He also reached fifty four times in eight T20 Internationals, averaging a remarkable 48.42 at a strike rate of 167.

The left-handed wicketkeeper/batsman scored more Test runs in 2019 than any other Protea (713, 216 more than Faf du Plessis), but has set his sights on scoring more hundreds in the coming season.

“I’ve had the world’s best Lockdown, I’ve been very busy doing nothing. I’ve kept up with my fitness and training in the gym, but I’m based in a very remote place [Garden Route] and there’s not much cricket around here. But practice is mostly muscle memory and there’s still so much time before our next game, you could end up hitting balls for no reason. I needed the break and tried to stay away from cricket.

“But in terms of fulfilling my potential, I would only rank myself about 6.5 out of 10. I had too many starts without progressing, I’m tough on myself and to be honest I’d love to convert those starts into even bigger runs. I wanted to come up the order, I’m happy at five for now and I feel that I can score big hundreds there,” De Kock said after also being named Test Cricketer of the Year and Players’ Player of the Year.

One thing De Kock was adamant about is that he is not going to try and take on the Test captaincy as well as his role as white-ball skipper, wicketkeeper and key batsman.

“Mark Boucher and I had an informal chat and I said I wasn’t sure about the Test captaincy. It would be too much to handle, I realise that now, to be wicketkeeper and captain, I don’t need all that stress, I could see that a mile away,” De Kock said.

Laura Wolvaardt was named the Women’s Cricketer of the Year, largely on the back of her superb performances in steering South Africa to the semi-finals of the ICC World T20 in Australia, and the 21-year-old said the Proteas will try their utmost to do even better in their 50-over World Cup scheduled for January.

“Our main focus has been that ODI World Cup for the last three-and-a-bit years and once we start playing again it will be full steam ahead towards that. The T20 World Cup in Australia will always have a special place in my heart, just the way the team played and the brand of cricket we produced was very special. It was incredible how we performed.

“I definitely did not see all this success coming at all at the start of the season, especially my role at five in the T20s, and I’m very glad it went well. It was the magical idea of the selectors to move me there because I’d had struggles in the powerplay up front. It gave me more freedom once the field was spread, I could rotate the strike a bit more while getting set,” Wolvaardt said.

Quinton de Kock has not batted with such assurance of his role or such clinical efficiency in Test cricket before and his career-best innings took South Africa to 421 for eight at lunch on the second day of the fourth Test against England at SuperSport Park in Centurion on Saturday.

South Africa had resumed their first innings on 329 for five and De Kock’s fine 85 not out off just 94 balls, with 12 fours and a six spread all around the ground, made sure that the memorable centuries scored by Stephen Cook and Hashim Amla on the first day were translated into a sizeable total.

De Kock lost overnight partner Temba Bavuma (35) before long on the second morning, the diminutive batsman not driving with the same authority as he did on the first evening and edging Stuart Broad behind after he had added just three runs to his overnight score.

Kagiso Rabada then fell to his first ball, Jimmy Anderson finding his pads with a brilliant inswinging yorker for his first wicket in 24 overs of toil. The batsman’s review was in vain as Rabada recorded his second duck in his fledgling Test career.

With South Africa having slipped to 336 for seven, De Kock began playing his shots in impressive fashion, wowing a capacity Saturday crowd.

Kyle Abbott was his partner in a rollicking eighth-wicket stand of 50 off 55 balls, having his career-best score of 16 to boast about.

Once Abbott was removed midway through the session, trapped lbw by Ben Stokes, De Kock linked up again, this time with Dane Piedt (10*) as they carried South Africa through to lunch with an unbeaten stand of 35 for the ninth wicket.

England were let down by their catching behind the wicket on the second morning, with Stokes dropping a sharp chance in the gully from De Kock off Anderson in the third over when the left-hander had just 28, and wicketkeeper Jonathan Bairstow and slip Alastair Cook allowing another edge from De Kock to sail between them in Chris Woakes’ penultimate over before lunch.

https://citizen.co.za/sport/south-african-sport/sa-cricket-sport/957580/957580/

An opening stand of 72 nicely teed up the West Indies’ reply before both openers were dismissed and they reached lunch on 110 for two on the third day of the first Sunfoil Test against South Africa at SuperSport Park in Centurion on Friday.

Kraigg Braithwaite (34) and Devon Smith (35) were the batsmen who defied the much-vaunted South African pace attack for 21.4 overs in cloudy conditions and it took an extraordinary decision by TV umpire Paul Reiffel for the breakthrough to come.

Vernon Philander had just returned for his second spell when Smith tried to pull a shortish delivery and wicketkeeper AB de Villiers, standing in for Quinton de Kock who rolled an ankle in the warm-up, tumbled to his left to make the take. Faf du Plessis was also off the field due to abdominal cramps.

On-field umpire Billy Bowden turned down the caught-behind appeal that came mostly from Philander and South Africa decided to refer the decision.

Reiffel decided that a flimsy scratch on Snicko could be pinned down to when the ball passed the bat and overturned Bowden’s decision, which left most people watching the replays utterly bemused and the West Indians less than happy.

Braithwaite was then nailed by Philander in his next over, the accurate paceman getting a delivery to nip away, a firm push sending the ball low and to the right of Hashim Amla at first slip, the captain claiming a good catch.

The West Indies were able to go into lunch without further loss though as Leon Johnson hit three fours on his way to 27 not out and Marlon Samuels had scored a watchful six not out.

With South Africa having declared their first innings on 552 for five, the West Indies still need 243 runs to avoid the follow-on.

 http://citizen.co.za/296270/sa-v-west-indies-day-3-lunch/