South Africa strike twice after stubborn opening stand

Tea: Sri Lanka 205 and 118 for 2 (Silva 48*, Mendis 14*) need another 370 runs to beat South Africa 286 and 406 for 6 dec (Cook 117, de Kock 69, du Plessis 67*, Elgar 52)Live scorecard and ball-by-ball details

An opening partnership of 87 between Dimuth Karunaratne and Kaushal Silva gave Sri Lanka the beginnings of hope of pulling off a fourth-innings chase of 488 before two wickets in the space of 15 balls reminded them of the enormity of their task. Sri Lanka were 118 for 2 at tea on day four, with Silva batting on 48 and Kusal Mendis alongside him on 14.

On a pitch that was doing a lot less than it had on the first two days, Karunaratne and Silva had comfortably surpassed previous Sri Lankan opening partnerships in South Africa, both in terms of length and output, before a run-out ended it. Silva pushed Keshav Maharaj into the covers, and set off immediately. Karunaratne responded after a moment’s hesitation, and that little stutter was enough to find him short of his crease when he dived to beat JP Duminy’s throw to the keeper’s end.

Then Kusal Perera, his place at No. 3 in question after his dismissal to a wild slash in the first innings, fell to another injudicious stroke, top-edging a cut against the turn off Maharaj when he was getting consistent turn and bounce out of the rough.

Suddenly, South Africa were all over the batsmen, conceding only one run in four overs before Mendis broke the spell by sweeping Maharaj for fours in successive overs. In between, though, Sri Lanka nearly lost another, Mendis needing to dive acrobatically to regain …

continue reading in source www.espncricinfo.com