South Africa 124 and 246 for 7 (de Bruyn 85*,Bavuma Herath 4-75) need another 244 runs to beat Sri Lanka 338 and 275 for 5 dec
Theunis de Bruyn and Temba Bavuma shared in South Africa’s first century stand of the series, and became the only two players in their line-up to bring up fifties on the tour, frustrating Sri Lanka for most of the morning session, up until the final ten minutes before lunch. De Bruyn and Bavuma’s 123-run partnership is the highest fourth-wicket stand by a South African side in Asia, and took the match into an 11th session, but South Africa have only the tail to come with Bavuma and Quinton de Kock falling in the session’s final moments.
Bavuma and de Bruyn played confidently against the spinners and both employed the sweep shot to good effect. They forced to Sri Lanka to look further than their three main spinner, with Suranga Lakmal having his first bowl of the match in the 55th over, and Dhananjaya de Silva and Danushka Gunathilaka both turning their arms over.
De Bruyn, who is playing his sixth Test, showed, for the first time at international level, why he is much lauded in the domestic franchise game and may have made a strong case to be persisted with at No.3. Bavuma, who is often criticised for his slow scoring-rate, too showed a much more positive approach and scored his 63 runs in 98 balls, a strike-rate of almost 65%.
But their morning was not without its nerves. Dilruwan Perera rapped de Bruyn on the pad early on, and then reviewed for a catch off Bavuma at short leg. Ultra-Edge showed there was no contact between the bat and ball, as the delivery turned down leg and Sri Lanka lost their first review. De Bruyn almost sent a Rangana Herath delivery into the hands of Angelo Mathews at slip but the next ball he faced, he punched through the covers to bring up his maiden Test fifty, in 118 balls.
Both players grew in confidence as the session went on, despite the number of times Sri Lanka’s bowlers seemed to have the better of them. Herath beat Bavuma on the front foot often but Bavuma bisected square leg and fine leg to send a Herath delivery to the boundary; Herath drew a leading edge from de Bruyn that fell safe but de Bruyn established authority with shots like the pull off Lakmal to square leg. Bavuma’s fifty came off 69 balls, and he may have been eyeing a long-overdue second Test hundred but, with lunch looming, pushed forward to a Herath delivery and was caught behind.
Quinton de Kock opened his account with a reverse-sweep, which suggests his time in the middle could be fun, but it ended on the stroke of lunch. De Kock was given out lbw to a Herath delivery that struck him on the back pad as he front pad and reviewed. Replays showed umpires call on leg stump to end a disappointing tour for de Kock, and could leave de Bruyn without partners to reach a maiden Test hundred.
The second new ball is due in four overs and with the spinners making good use of a hard ball, the challenge for de Bruyn will be to see how long he can survive against it.
Source: ESPN Crickinfo