South Africa v Sri Lanka 2nd Test at Durban

Marchant de Lange is debuting for South Africa, in place of Philnder.

Dinesh Chandimal will be making his debut in place of Kaushal Silva.

Weather: Sunny, lovely summer's day.

Pitch: Hard and bouncy.

SL win toss and will bat. Brave from Dilshan, even though SA would have probably chose to bat first.

Teams:

SA: GC Smith(c), JA Rudolph, HM Amla, JH Kallis, AB de Villiers, AG Prince, MV Boucher(w), M de Lange, DW Steyn, Imran Tahir, M Morkel.

SL: TM Dilshan(c), NT Paranavitana, KC Sangakkara, DPMD Jayawardene, TT Samaraweera, AD Mathews, LD Chandimal(w), HMRKB Herath, NLTC Perera, UWMBCA Welegedara, CRD Fernando.

Hopefully this will be a special test for Dale Steyn, it is his 50th test.

Philander is out so the new kid M de Lange is in.

Sri Lanka won the toss and chose to bat

Dilshan with a close call, in Morkel's first over, but no review from SA. Was just sliding down.

SA have lost their last three Test's at Kingsmead, but then again SL have never won a Test in SA.

Positive start from SL: 20-0 from 5 overs.

M de Lange replaces Steyn, and Dilshan showing his obvious attempt to try to rattle him. Could be interesting viewing if Dilshan gets going.

A 1st Test wkt for de Lange

NT Paranavitana c Boucher b de Lange 12.

SL 35-1.

De Lange gets his first wicket, edge to Boucher

De Lange edges Sangakkara to Boucher

Quite some shoes to fill for De Lange, but more than stepping up to the mark thus far.

The World's No1 batsman is struggling against the SA quicks, without his valuable contributions, SL are always on the backfoot.

Philander should be fit for the Cape Town test, not looking very good for Morkel at the moment...

KingProtea wrote:Philander should be fit for the Cape Town test, not looking very good for Morkel at the moment...

Morkel not having the best of luck recently, too early to say, but yes the doubts will be starting to creep in.

I think they should stick with Morne. Unless Tahir has a very good game here, they might go for 4 seamers for the next test.

Bonus wkt for SA. Dilshan could have hit the full toss anywhere, but he hit it straight to deep square-leg.

When it's not going your way....

SA's morning now.

TM Dilshan c Morkel b Imran Tahir 47.

SL 84-3.

biltongbek wrote:I think they should stick with Morne. Unless Tahir has a very good game here, they might go for 4 seamers for the next test.

They might well do, Tahir has not impressed too much so far, plus far too many no-balls and full tosses.

Lunch: SL 112-3 from 28 overs.

Quick SR from SL this morning but have lost 3 wkts.

De Lange with a good Test debut, Morkel unlucky, Tahir with a fortunate wicket but mostly ineffective and Steyn off-colour.

But SA in the better place

Yep, I have not been very impressed with Tahir since his debut.

He has shown that turning the ball means nothing without accuracy.

Stump goes tumbling and Morkel gets his deserved reward.

DPMD Jayawardene b Morkel 31.

SL 120-4, and with their rabbits to come!

Interesting to see how well Samaraweera does - got a test average of over 50 but record outside Subcontinent not all that good....

In fact, he's got 12 test centuries - of which 8 were scored in Sri Lanka- and three in Pakistan. Hasn't so far managed a century against Australia or South Africa and only one against England. So I'd say he has a good way to go before he is a candidate for the Hall of Fame. But he did make a gutsy return following his injury in the terrorist attack.....

A much needed 50 from Samaraweera his first against SA. As Cb has pointed out he by far enjoys the asian tracks, but now showing he can play the odd good innings away from home.

SL 213-5

50 on debut from Chandimal. Good fightback from Sri Lanka - 100 partnership for 6th wicket

A good and much needed 50 from Chandimal to help put SL very much back in the game, but has just gone to Morkel caught behind.

LD Chandimal c Boucher b Morkel 58.

SL 276-6.

De Lange gets his 4th victim with the last ball of the days play.

NLTC Perera c Amla b de Lange 12.

A much better batting deck than Centurions, but good to see SL battle after there 1st Test nightmare.

Honours even.

SL 289-7.

Actually, not a bad effort from the Lankan batters. But will their bowling be up to task?
Chandimal continues to impress, wonder why Lanka took so muchtime giving him a chance.

Pleased to see Samaraweera finally score some runs outside of Sri Lanka today. Otherwise, quite an even day which both sides will be reasonably pleased with. De Lange bowled with good strength and pace although he is probably still a bit raw to nail down a place in the side. Tahir is still a worry for SA - he really hasn't found any consistency to his bowling in Test cricket yet.

Yes Tahir didn't look as if he could really tie down an end, he did however not get the wicket of Samaraweera when he should have. In the 61 st over when Samaraweera was on 51 e was caught and bowled by Tahir, but the umpire incorrectly called a no ball. So that would have made things a lot different not only for Tahir but also for SA.

Must admit I wasn't over impressed by Tahir against Australia ... in fact I thought SA may have been better off with Harris.
But in fairness I think he has to be given a few Tests (in different conditions) to see what he can do. Sri Lanka probably play spin as well as any apart from India.

South Africa's old problem, not being able to dispose of the tail, is back again it seems. Herath and Samaraweera are going on nicely, putting 44, with Herath being the dominent one.
Just as I type, Herath gets out to De Lange, to complete a 5fer on debut for De Lange!. He isn't the first one to do so this year, is he? Ashwin, Cummins, Lyon, Pattinson, Philander, De Lange......
Meanwhile, Thilan Samaraweera gets to his ton!.

...and now De Lange has six !

You really hexed the Sri Lankan tail there , msp

Very well played Samaraweera deserved that hundred. Will need to hit out now , surely?

De Lange's success will indeed make it interesting for the SA selectors when Philander is fit again.

Seven on debut for De Lange !

Apparently the third best ever first up bowling performance...

Morne Morkel will have a real job to do in the Sri Lanka 2nd innings.
He did bowl ok in the first innings, but Vernon Philander should be available for the next match, and after picking up 7 wickets already, it will be very dificult to keep De Lange out. Significantly, De Lange came on first change, a role Morkel was asked to perform, and as we know, he didn't do a pretty good job of it.

SA in disarray - 27 for 3 wickets.... including Kallis for a duck.

The South Africans have a real problem playing at Kingsmead, don't they? Are they going to trip up yet again? The score bord says 37, and Smith, Rudolph, and Kallis, are all already back in the hut!.

SA collapse to 168 all out. Welegedara and Herath shared nine wickets. They also share 11 initials (U. W. M. B. C. A. Welegedara and H. M. R. K. B. Herath).

Corporalhumblebucket wrote:SA collapse to 168 all out. Welegedara and Herath shared nine wickets. They also share 11 initials (U. W. M. B. C. A. Welegedara and H. M. R. K. B. Herath).

What are their full names please Cb.

Uda Walawwe Mahim Bandaralage Chanaka Asanka Welegedara; and
Herath Mudiyanselage Rangana Keerthi Bandara Herath (according to Wiki)

south africa collaspe and Welegedra puts in a another very good discplined performance

You have to love SA. One week they are unbeatable - then suddenly implode.

[quote="LondonTiger"]You have to love SA. One week they are unbeatable - then suddenly implode.[/quote]

Yer telling me, I wasnt surprised that their bowling went weaker without Philander but the batting today was a shocker. SL are in the box-seat now !

Unless Dale Steyn puts in a real steller spel, SA will find it dificult to come back. Anything over 250 would be dificult to chase, considering the lack of depth of the Lankan bowling unit, Sri Lanka would look at at least setting more than 350.
One possible trouble for Lanka is the weather. Rain is predicted for the day. Hopes it stays away.

I switched on late here (just before tea in SA) when ABdV and Amla looked to be going along comfortably with the score at 100/3.

Then Robin Jackman said something like "SA will happy to be at 200/3 at the close... and alternatively SL wouldn't mind having them 170/4 or 5 at the close"

I then switched over to watch some football and couldn't believe it when I checked the score again a little while later and they were 135/8!

Steyn and de Lange need to rip through the SL batting this morning to keep the lead gettable. Otherwise this SL side will be full of confidence and it will be hard to see them losing.

What is it with SA in Durban? I hope the weather stays away and we see if SA can change pull off some sort of recovery on the scoreboard... but it looks like a tall order at the moment.

33/2 now so I don't think they will bowl them out for 47

no chance of a 5-0 whitewash either...

65 - 3 at lunch - lead 235. Sangakkara in and probably due a decent innings. Samaraweera in good form after the first innings. Sri Lanka could do with this partnership taking the lead past 300.

SL 92-3, leading by 262. Another 50 runs, They can feel comfortable. SA in need of some real inspiration, where is it going to come from?

SL 103-3, lead 273.
Think only the weather can save SA now!.

50 for Kumar Sangakkara!.
Sri Lanka 116-3.

Its been a pretty off colour match for Dale Steyn, 1 such in a pretty long time.