Lunch: Sri Lanka 205 and 27 for 0 (Silva 14*, Karunaratne 10*) need another 461 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
Faf du Plessis was batting on 67 when he declared © AFP
Sri Lanka’s openers survived testing 14-over period before lunch on the fourth day after South Africa declared to set the visitors a target of 488. As was the case during South Africa’s second innings, the seamers enjoyed less help from the surface than they had on the first two days of the Test, but Vernon Philander, Kyle Abbott and Kagiso Rabada ensured Dimuth Karunaratne and Kaushal Silva needed to be at their best to get through to lunch unscathed.
Karunatatne buckled down after a loose play-and-miss against Philander in the first over of Sri Lanka’s innings, and looked relatively secure at the crease, although both Philander and Abbott induced the occasional uncertain poke, getting a few balls to swing back into him and others to continue along with the angle across him.
All three quicks looked to test Silva, who was out lbw in the first innings, with balls angled sharply into him, and Rabada combined that with extra zip and bounce off the pitch. He fended one ball away through the fine leg region, and gloved another uncomfortably rising short ball, but took his bottom hand off the handle to soften the impact and ensure the ball fell short of Quinton de Kock diving to his right behind the wicket.
Earlier, Faf du Plessis and de Kock completed half-centuries and stretched their overnight sixth-wicket partnership to 129 before South Africa declared. The pair added 55 runs in the first 10.5 overs of the fourth morning, the declaration arriving when Rangana Herath dismissed de Kock for 69. De Kock was lbw, missing a sweep against a ball that was probably too full and too close to off stump to play the shot against safely.
Du Plessis hit only three fours in an unbeaten 67 while still scoring at a strike rate of 77.90, a reflection of Sri Lanka’s defensive fields. With South Africa already 432 ahead at the start of play, the only question that remained to be answered was when the declaration would come. Sri Lanka had bowled 80 overs on day three, took the new ball immediately, and bowled four tight overs, Dushmantha Chameera and Suranga Lakmal only conceding nine runs in that time.
Du Plessis then punched Chameera to the cover boundary to signal a shift of gear, as South Africa took 46 off the last 39 balls of their innings while barely breaking a sweat, the highlight of that period two sweetly timed inside-out drives from de Kock in one over from Dhananjaya de Silva.
Karthik Krishnaswamy is a senior sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo
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Source: ESPN Crickinfo