Fernando stars with five wickets as Sri Lanka fight back against Proteas

Batsmen were squirming on a seam-friendly Wanderers pitch on the second day of the second Test between South Africa and Sri Lanka on Monday, with the Proteas losing nine wickets for 84 runs and the tourists battling to 16 for one at tea in their second innings.

South Africa were bowled out for 302 just after 2pm, left-arm paceman Vishwa Fernando leading a dramatic Sri Lankan fightback with five for 101, his first five-wicket haul in his 10^th Test. But despite the collapse which saw the Proteas crash from 218 for one in the second hour of the day, the home side still enjoyed a healthy first innings lead of 145 and were in a position of strength.

They took a more powerful grip on the game when Lungi Ngidi castled Kusal Perera, the aggressive left-hander who certainly had the ability to quickly reduce that lead, with a superb delivery that seamed through the gate to hit the bail between the middle and leg stumps.

Sri Lankan captain Dimuth Karunaratne (11*) and fellow left-hander Lahiru Thirimmane (4*) survived through to the tea break.

South Africa had begun the afternoon session on 256 for five with Temba Bavuma and Wiaan Mulder eager to stem the flow of wickets that followed the brilliant second-wicket partnership of 184 between Dean Elgar and Rassie van der Dussen.

But Mulder was trapped lbw for 7 by Vishwa by the first ball he faced after lunch and Bavuma fell for 19 in embarrassing fashion when he shouldered arms to the same bowler and was given out lbw to one of the many inswingers the 29-year-old bowled.

With the help of debutant Asitha Fernando (19-5-61-2), Vishwa then ran through the tail, although South Africa made it past 300 with the aid of last man Ngidi’s 14, with three spanking drives for four.

Dasun Shanaka was the other outstanding Sri Lankan bowler on the second day with two for 42 in 15 overs.

The record second-wicket partnership of Dean Elgar and Rassie van der Dussen was ended 67 minutes into the second day, precipitating the collapse of the South African team to 256 for five at lunch.

South Africa resumed on 148 for one, just nine runs behind Sri Lanka’s measly first innings of 157, with both Elgar, on 92, and Van der Dussen, on 40, approaching milestones.

Elgar reached the landmark of three figures first, notching the second-fastest of his 13 Test centuries as he got there in 133 balls, with 18 fours. Van der Dussen went to his half-century off 98 deliveries and the pair passed South Africa’s record second-wicket partnership against Sri Lanka (125 between Elgar & Faf du Plessis in Galle in 2014) and then also broke the Wanderers record of 182 set by Andrew Strauss and Rob Key for England back in 2004/5.

Elgar scored the couple of runs that took the partnership to 184, but he was dismissed by the next delivery, Dushmantha Chameera bowling a fine delivery that just nipped away a touch to find the edge of the left-hander’s bat. Elgar was caught at first slip for 127, ending four hours of quality batsmanship in which he showed a tremendous ability to bat fluently, absorb pressure and then lift the scoring rate again.

The wicket of Van der Dussen followed in the next over, Sri Lanka needing good use of the review system to confirm the 31-year-old had gloved a paddle-pull down the leg side off Shanaka, wicketkeeper Niroshan Dickwella scrambling to take the catch.

A tumultuous 40 minutes continued with Faf du Plessis (8) being done in and caught behind by Shanaka’s gentle but clever seamers and Quinton de Kock (10) being superbly caught at third slip by a diving Kusal Mendis as Vishwa gained some lovely shape away from the left-hander.

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