Faf: There was nothing else we could’ve done

A phenomenal innings by Kusal Perera and a world-record last-wicket stand to win a Test took Sri Lanka to a sensational victory over South Africa in the first Test at Kingsmead in Durban on Saturday, with Proteas captain Faf du Plessis then having to deny that it was a choke.

Perera blasted 153 not out off 200 balls to take Sri Lanka to their target of 304, which would have been an extraordinary enough achievement on its own.

But the left-hander did it while marshalling last man Vishwa Fernando (6*) in a 10th-wicket stand that was worth a record-breaking 78 runs, making it one of the greatest Test innings.

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The previous highest last-wicket partnership to win a Test in the fourth innings was the 57 Inzamam-ul-Haq and Mushtaq Ahmed put on for Pakistan against Australia in 1994 in Karachi.

Vishwa faced just 23 of the 96 balls South Africa bowled to the last pair and Kusal managed the partnership magnificently.

South Africa, on the other hand, seemed to suffer a tactical meltdown.

They took all the pressure off Kusal by having as many as eight fielders on the boundary even when there were still more than 80 runs to get.

They delayed taking the second new ball and took all their slips away.

And they didn’t target the stumps enough when they were bowling to number 11 Vishwa.

Du Plessis, however, said after South Africa’s third one-wicket loss in their history that it had been a case of Perera playing a freak innings and he believed there was hardly a foot put wrong by his side on the final afternoon.

“There’s obviously a lot of emotion at the moment and disappointment is right at the top, and I’m trying to think of what we possibly could have done better. An innings like that will be spoken about for many years, Perera really took the game on and he took a lot of risks, on some days it just comes off.

“To hit consistently like that against our bowlers was incredible and we tried all the different tactics, but he manoeuvred things brilliantly with the tail. We tried to make sure we bowled as many balls as possible at the number 11, and obviously we were trying to hit the stumps, but the ball was swinging past the bat and the stumps.

“We didn’t lose because of our mistakes, we didn’t drop any catches, and it had nothing to do with pressure,” Du Plessis said.

While there will be a wealth of advice and theories for Du Plessis and the Proteas as to what they could have done differently on the final day, the skipper did say that his team should have scored more runs in the game.

“I was disappointed with the number of runs we scored in both innings, our totals [235 & 259] were under par. We’ve scored more runs on tougher surfaces in the last two years, so that’s what is most upsetting. Sure, we have a terrible record here and a very slow pitch, the last conditions we want, didn’t give us much to work with, but we have to be adaptable and good enough to beat Sri Lanka at home.

“It’s more about improving our batting, but that was a phenomenal innings by Perera. We were on top for most of the Test and we still would have said 300 was enough. But then when you are defending only 30-40 runs you know it’s crunch time and you need a bit of luck. I felt like we tried everything but Perera was just too good today,” Du Plessis said.

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