By Srian Obeyesekere
Skipper Dhananjaya de Silva and Kusal Mendis put Sri Lanka in with a chance of winning the second test against South Africa having put on an unfinished 83-tun partnership for the sixth wicket with both on 39 apiece and needing a further 143 with 5 wickets in hand reaching 205 for 5 chasing a target of 348 having dismissed the hosts for 317 in the second innings on a 5-wicket haul by Prabath Jayasuriya on the fourth day at St. George’s Park in Gqeberha yesterday.
Having come together with the score on 5 for 122 at the fall of Kamindu Mendis’ wicket for 34, Dhananjaya and Kusal Mendis carried the fight to the South African bowlers in workmanlike manner with the Lankan captain having faced 64 balls hitting 7 boundaries and Mendis not sparing anything lose clobbering 2 over the top and alike number of boundaries in weathering the threatening Protea pace attack of their first iñnings scourge Marco Jansen who went wicketless and Kagiso Rabada 1 and Dane Patterson 2 with off spinner Keshav Maharaj taking 2.
The Lankans rode a tense decisive fourth day the chase taking a bad note of 1 for 10, 2 for 47 and 3 for 64 with Dimuth Karunaratne gone for 1, Pathum Nissanka 18, Dinesh Chandimal 29 before Angelo Mathews a run a ball 36 forcing the pace smashing 4 boundaries and a six and Kamindu Mendis 34 piercing the boundary exquisitely on four rounds and one poolover the top added 53 for the fourth wicket before Mathews was bowled by Maharaj with the score on 117 after 31.5 overs. Mendis followed five runs later. Perhaps unsettled by a Peterson delivery that hit his helmet Mendis fell in the very next over to a Maharaj delivery that gripped and turned into him taking his bat and pads to the ball running behind for wicket keeper Kyle Verreynne to take a brilliant catch.
The Mathews-Mendis breakthrough was a costly blow to the Lankans hopes of making it when the partnership had begun to blossom at a fast pace.
But Dhananjaya de Silva strode to the middle in a purposeful and measured countering of the Protea pace-spin attack with a watchful Kusal Mendis not sparing the hittable deliveries as the duo remained Sri Lanka’s last bastion to paving victory with how they tackle the final day’s first session vital to their victory hopes.
Sri Lanka owed it to spinner Prabath Jayasuriya who claimed five wickets in bowling out South Africa for 317 from an overnight impregnable 191 for 3 to giving his side a chance of squaring the series and hopes of staying in the World Test Championship running.
Sri Lanka 328 and 205 for 5 (Dhananjaya 39, Kusal 39, Paterson 2-33, Maharaj 2-62) need 143 runs to beat South Africa 358 and 317 (Bavuma 66, Markram 55, Jayasuriya 5-129)
