Advantage Sri Lanka as Lakmal grabs four

South Africa 267 for 6 (Duminy 63, Cook 59, Lakmal 4-62) v Sri LankaScorecard and ball-by-ball details

Suranga Lakmal picked up four wickets in an innings for only the second time in a 32-Test career as South Africa ended the first day of their Test series against Sri Lanka at a vulnerable 267 for 6. It was a strange, seesawing day in which it was hard to say if South Africa failed to make full use of good batting conditions or if Sri Lanka’s bowling attack was too reliant on Lakmal to fully exploit a greener-than-usual St George’s Park pitch. It may need South Africa to bowl on this surface for a complete picture to emerge.

Faf du Plessis trusted history, which said this was among the slower surfaces in South Africa, over the appearance of the pitch, and conditions proved to be a mixed bag. South Africa’s openers added 104 and all of their top five got starts, but none of them carried on beyond 63. None of them were really at fault for their dismissals apart from JP Duminy, who top-scored and gave his wicket away in one of the hinge moments of the day.

Perhaps Sri Lanka could have had South Africa in a worse position had Lakmal enjoyed better support from the two other frontline quicks. It was instructive that when Sri Lanka took the second new ball – as soon as it became available – it was Angelo Mathews who shared it with Lakmal rather than Nuwan Pradeep or Dushmantha Chameera. It was also instructive that Sri Lanka’s second-most successful bowler on the day wasn’t a seamer but the ageless Rangana Herath, whose dismissals of Duminy and Temba Bavuma, both against the run of play, changed the complexion of the day.

When Duminy decided to sweep Herath in the 71st over of the day, South Africa were 213 for 3. Duminy was batting on 63 and was looking in the form of his life, driving like a dream through mid-off and extra-cover. The ball wasn’t the safest to …

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