Wiaan Mulder’s two early dismissals in the first session on Day 4 sparked a top-order collapse as Sri Lanka were reduced to 148-7, still trailing by 77 runs in the Boxing Day Test, writes Khalid Mohidin.
There was a contrasting approach by the Sri Lankan batsmen – Dinesh Chandimal and Kusal Perera – who started the morning session. The latter taking a more aggressive approach that paid off.
It proved to be a masterstroke by Quinton de Kock to open the bowling with Wiaan Mulder. The importance of Sri Lanka building partnerships would be key and Mulder rattled Sri Lanka’s flow with two key early wickets.
Mulder was consistent in his line and length, forcing the Sri Lanka batsmen to play. His first wicket was that of Chandimal, who seemed to struggle with his foot movement after suffering an injury on the evening of the 3rd Day. Mulder angled in a beautiful inswinger that clipped the right-handers off stump.
He then followed this with another important breakthrough, banging it in at the fourth-stump channel, drawing a thick outside edge for a simple De Kock take behind the stumps to reduce Sri Lanka to 99/4.
Mulder finished the session with figures of 2/39 to add to his 3/69 in the first innings.
De Kock’s rotation of Lungi Ngidi and Anrich Nortje on the other end, allowed the Proteas to keep on the pressure, and the tactic worked beautifully when Nortje once again was responsible for Sri Lanka’s dangerman’s demise. He found Perera’s outside edge after he gave them hope with a well-played 64 off 87 balls (10 fours).
Lutho Sipamla followed Mulder in taking his 5th wicket in the match, finding Dasun Shanaka’s edge with a 138 km/h beauty pitched in the golden 4th-stump area.
A mix up in the middle saw Keshav Maharaj run out Vishwa Fernando for a duck, as the end drew near for Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka managed to survive without any further dismissals, ending the session on 148-7, still trailing by 77 runs.
Photo: Muzi Ntombela/BackpagePix
Set a reminder for our review show after the day’s play:
