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Hosts hold edge, but young side gives Sri Lanka hope
- Updated: December 25, 2016
Match facts
December 26-30, 2016 Start time 1000 local (0800 GMT)
Big Picture
Sri Lanka’s tour record in South Africa does not make for pretty reading. Out of 10 Tests in the country, eight have been lost. Of those, half have been innings losses and one a ten-wicket defeat. Only three Sri Lanka batsmen have reached triple figures (Thilan Samaraweera achieving it twice in the most recent tour), and the island’s best seam bowler, Chaminda Vaas, could claim only 11 wickets at 47.45 in eight innings.
Muttiah Muralitharan perhaps has the best South Africa record, with 35 scalps at 26.02, but then he was, you know, Murali.
Maybe it is because of this litany of woeful returns that South Africa are upbeat ahead of their summer’s sole series. They also quite clearly have a superior pace attack, a savvier batting order, the more proficient fielding unit, and probably better haircuts, faster cars and higher thread-count bed sheets.
And yet, there is hope in the visitors’ camp – not all of which is the mandatory-but-misplaced pre-series bravado. They think they’ve unlocked something special in the past six months. They think they have a skilled middle order. And they think their attack, if not dominant or destructive, is at least decent (as long as the quicks can stay fit).
And yet, for all that, it is the hosts who look likely to come out of this tussle sweeter than a glob of Faf du Plessis saliva. The pitch may tend to be slow at St. George’s Park, but the two result matches in the ground this decade have been thumping South Africa wins – over Australia and New Zealand. When the final scores are totted up, it may be said that the likes of Kyle Abbott, Kagiso Rabada and Vernon Philander just confer too great an advantage at home.
It is up to this young Sri Lanka outfit to spring a great …
