Sri Lanka v South Africa - 2nd Test, Day 5: Records tumble in drawn Test as South Africa regain No. 1 spot

South Africa eked out a draw courtesy of tail-enders

(Scores in brief: Sri Lanka 421 & 229/8d; South Africa 282 & 159/8 (111.0 overs) – Match drawn)

South Africa managed to hold their own to draw the second and final Test match of the series against Sri Lanka, thereby reclaiming their No.1 position, from Australia, in the ICC Test team rankings, courtesy of a 1-0 series win in the Island nation, their first win since 1993.

Starting the day at 37/1, opener Dean Elgar was castled by Dilruwan Perera right after the drinks break. Quinton de Kock, promoted to No. 3 after the fall of Alviro Peterson on day 4, fell, as well, owing to the continued pressure from the home side. Although they had added only 30 runs till that point, the visitors had already survived almost half the day, with rain playing spoilsport for a good part of the morning session. They were 55/2 by Lunch and 104/4 by Tea.

AB de Villiers and Hashim Amla’s 25 run partnership lasted for 147 balls. De Villiers even survived a close leg before shout, which the Lankans reviewed in vain, before Rangana Herath pitched one on the leg to go past the outside edge and disturb the woodwork. Faf du Plessis was given out the very next ball, only for the decision to be overturned via a review. The ball was clearly missing the leg stump according to the Hawk-eye. Amla’s marathon innings ended soon after Tea, and Du Plessis, too, followed his captain. Herath’s twin strikes pushed his side close only for the rain to interrupt again.

The showers did make way for the play to start, in 30 minutes, though. Despite the dismissal of Jean Paul Duminy for a dogged 65-ball 3 in the last hour of the day, an unbeaten ninth wicket partnership – 11 off 49 deliveries – from Vernon Philander (27* off 98) and Imran Tahir (4* off 21) helped South Africa gift their captain Amla a memorable Test series victory in his first ever outing as captain.

Here is a look at some of the outstanding feats accomplished in the match.

• Catch No.200 – Mahela Jayawardene’s catch to dismiss Du Plessis was his 200th in Test cricket. He became the third cricketer after Rahul Dravid (210) and Jacques Kallis (200) to reach the milestone and the quickest among all: Jayawardene took 147 Tests, 2 less than Dravid.
• The waiting game – JP Duminy batted for 123 balls to make 6 runs at a strike-rate of 4.87 in the match: 3 from 58 and 3 from 65. This is the second slowest match aggregate ever in Test history. England cricketer John Murray’s 3 in 101 deliveries at a rate of 2.97 at Sydney in 1963 remains the slowest.
• First captain – Hashim Amla’s century in South Africa’s first innings is only the first ton by a Protean skipper in Sri Lanka and also the second highest for a visiting captain at Colombo (SSC). Amla’s innings of 139* was his 7th Test ton in the sub-continent, and only Jacques Kallis leads him with 8 tons in the list of non-Asian players with most centuries at the Asian venues.
• Bowling machine – Rangana Herath broke Muttiah Muralitharan’s record to become the Sri Lankan bowler to bowl the maximum number of overs in a two-match Test series. He has bowled a record 172 overs in the series: 60, 22, 45 and 45 in 4 innings. Muralitharan had previously bowled 163 overs in 2006 against the same opponent.
• Favourite ground – Mahela Jayawardene scored his 11th ton at the SSC, in the first innings. The 37-year-old made 165 to equal the most number of centuries scored by a player at home. He now shares the record with Ricky Ponting and Kallis: 23 each.
• First time ducks – This is the first instance of the two Sri Lankan batsmen Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara getting dismissed for a duck in the same match. Sangakkara made a duck in the first innings, while the first innings centurion failed to get going in the second.
• Contrasting times – Sangakkara scored his 5th golden duck in his Test career, and, on three of those occasions, Jayawardene has gone on to make hundred: against England in 2012 in back-to-back Test matches and now against South Africa.
• Wicket master – Dale Steyn surpassed Waqar Younis’ tally of 373 Test wickets and, with 375 scalps, is now 15th in the all-time leading wicket-takers list in Test cricket. The 31-year-old is one wicket short of equalling Malcolm Marshall. Only Shaun Pollock(421) and Makhaya Ntini(390) are ahead of Steyn among his countrymen.
• Remarkable travellers – With this series win, South African have not lost an away Test series since 2007, winning 9 out of 13: twice each in Australia (2008/09 and 2012/13), England (2008 and 2012), one each in West Indies(2010), New Zealand (2011/12), Pakistan(2007/08), Bangladesh(2007/08) and Sri Lanka(2014). The only two countries that have not lost a Test series to the Proteas at home are India and Pakistan: 2 drawn series after 2007.
• Successor of Murali – Rangana Herath has registered his 18th five-wicket haul in his career. No other Sri Lankan has taken more than 12 five-fors apart from Muttiah Muralitharan, who has taken a massive 67.

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