South Africa surge ahead on seamers’ day

Sri Lanka 181 for 7 (De Silva 43*, Philander 3-35) trail South Africa 286 (Duminy 63, Cook 59, Lakmal 5-63) by 105 runsScorecard and ball-by-ball details

Vernon Philander and Kyle Abbott led South Africa’s fightback after they were bowled out for 286 early on day two, giving Sri Lanka no respite as they went to stumps seven down for 181. Dhananjaya de Silva was batting on 43 when bad light brought play to an early close, playing some sparkling strokes through the on side and profiting from an ageing ball that wasn’t moving nearly as much as it had done all the way up to tea.

But South Africa had inflicted plenty of damage by then, generating swing and seam movement off a greenish pitch that was now pockmarked by indentations made by the ball’s repeated impact. Abbott and Philander exploited this to the fullest by consistently hitting a fullish length in the channel outside off. Only Suranga Lakmal – who completed his maiden five-wicket haul in the morning session – had managed this among Sri Lanka’s frontline seamers.

There were few freebies for Sri Lanka’s batsmen: by stumps, only 41.98% of their runs had come through the leg side, despite a spike after tea when the wristy de Silva flicked balls off his stumps and Kagiso Rabada fed Rangana Herath a succession of deliveries directed down the leg side. South Africa’s batsmen, in contrast, had scored 59.09% of their runs in that half of the field.

Seam movement did for Kaushal Silva in the ninth over after lunch, after he had ground out 16 in just under two hours at the crease. Stretching out and following what appeared to be a full outswinger from Philander, he ended up playing a long way outside the line as the ball nipped back in and hit him flush on the front pad, in front of off stump. Silva …

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