We take a look at the defining moments during the Proteas 10-wicket victory over Sri Lanka at the Wanderers yesterday to clinch a 2-0 series whitewash, writes Marc Jacobson.
The victory was good, not great
It was a Test that more rewarded the bowlers, but the middle-order collapse that the Proteas suffered on day two provided some cause for concern.
South Africa got off to a foundational start, having skittled Sri Lanka out for 157 before Dean Elgar and Rassie van der Dussen helped the side to 148-1 at stumps, just nine runs adrift of their opposition.
The pair continued their resilient touch the next morning, before things went in tatters after Elgar’s wicket, where he scored a solid 127.
The Proteas went from 218-2 to 302 all out, which means they were, essentially, reduced to 84-8 for the remainder of the innings.
This poses questions in terms of the solidarity of the Proteas batting order, especially against what was a largely diluted Sri Lankan bowling attack.
Van der Dussen was dismissed the very next over after Elgar’s wicket, which makes one believe that Elgar was his support system out there in the middle, especially when the former was struggling to score runs on the opening day.
Nonetheless, Van der Dussen contributed a styling score of 67.
Quinton de Kock doesn’t seem like his old self anymore – and hasn’t for several months already – and the captaincy role he has undertaken should seriously be re-considered, as mentioned before.
De Kock scored only 10, along with Faf du Plessis’s 8, but the latter can still be forgiven after having contributed sternly in the previous Test where he scored a career-best of 199.
Temba Bavuma (19), Wiaan Mulder (7) and Keshav Maharaj (2) didn’t really do their parts either with the bat. One would’ve thought that after the foundation the Proteas laid, they would’ve perhaps ascended to a mammoth total to try and win by an innings.
However, their lead was only 145 runs and they were left to pick up the pieces and make up for their uncharacteristic disintegration.
Some perspective on the Sri Lankan side
This was nowhere near the best Sri Lankan side to play against a confident and resurgent Proteas outfit at home.
Sri Lanka was without three of their frontline pacemen – Suranga Lakmal, Kasun Rajitha and Lahiru Kumara – who all withdrew from the second Test due to hamstring and groin injuries respectively.
On top of that, they were also depleted of their batting resources when three of their go-to batters were also ruled out injured, namely Dhananjaya de Silva, Dinesh Chandimal, as well as Dinesh Chandimal.
This further throws South Africa’s underperformance and the significance of their victory in the spotlight.
The Proteas were unchanged from their big victory at SuperSport Park and question marks once again loom over the integrity they displayed at the Wanderers.
If they had played against better opposition, they may have been drastically exposed in several areas of their game.
A thing of partnerships
One aspect that worked well for the Proteas were the partnerships they utilized throughout their spells.
Besides Elgar’s and Van der Dussen’s 184-run partnership with the bat, the manner in which SA rotated the bowling strikes in pairs was effective.
Without even using Maharaj’s spin in both innings, Lungi Ngidi and Anrich Nortje opened the bowling and together they aligned their variations to rattle Sri Lanka’s top order.
Mulder and Lutho Sipamla then came to the fore where they posed another set of variations and had cleaned up what the openers hadn’t yet finished.
This was evident in the first innings when Mulder picked off three of Sri Lanka’s top-order batsmen after they built a solid partnership facing the openers. Nortje followed, and cleaned up the rest of their line-up to eventually take six wickets.
Likewise, in the second innings, Ngidi rattled Sri Lanka’s cages to take out their top-order, along with his ‘partner’ Nortje, as they both dismissed Sri Lanka’s top six batsmen.
Ngidi took four of those wickets and he was the most inexpensive bowler of the innings. Sipamla then claimed three wickets to clean up the tail, as Mulder took one.
The way the Proteas utilized these duos to bowl in tandem with one another was a smart move and it can be posed as a weapon for exploiting stronger sides in the future.
Photo: Samuel Shivambu/BackpagePix
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