Marco Jansen took 11 wickets in the match as South Africa comfortably beat Sri Lanka in the first Test in Durban.
Jansen’s figures were the third-best figures at the stadium and the best in almost 25 years as South Africa won by 233 runs.
Jansen reached double figures in a Test match for the first time, including the last two wickets of Sri Lanka’s second innings, with seven claimed by the 24-year-old as South Africa skittled the tourists to their lowest Test score in an innings. I followed. 42 of.
This came in response to South Africa’s first-innings total of 191 and a second-innings century with skipper Temba Bavuma and Tristan Stubbs helming the hosts and declared on 366.
South African captain Temba Bavuma led his team to victory in the match against Sri Lanka held in Durban, scoring 70 runs in the first innings and 100 runs in the second innings.
This gave Sri Lanka a huge victory target of 516 and South Africa made the task almost impossible by taking five wickets before stumps on Friday.
Sri Lanka put up stubborn resistance for the first 90 minutes of play on day four, with Dinesh Chandimal and Dhananjaya da Silva both hitting half-centuries to deny the home bowlers.
The pair displayed confident batting to take the score from 103-5 to 196 for the night before captain Da Silva played a slow delivery from spinner Keshav Maharaj to Stubbs’ mid-wicket.
Da Silva made 59 off 81 balls to thwart home hopes of wrapping up the result early, but gave away his wicket with surprising ease before release.
At the other end, Chandimal took his record from 29 all night to 69 not out at lunch, but South Africa soon found a breakthrough when Gerald Coetzee’s delivery caught the side of his bat and the bowler adapted well to make the catch. Sri Lanka’s number three batsman was dismissed for 83.
The last three wickets then followed in quick succession, including a fantastic finish when Jansen clicked Asitha Fernando’s mid-stump in dramatic fashion. This means South Africa can claim victory in the series as long as they avoid defeat in the second Test.
Watch the second Test between South Africa and Sri Lanka at Gqeberha live on Sky Sports Cricket from 7.30am on Thursday.
