Sri Lanka 328 and 60 for 2 (Chandimal 29, Mathews 6, Paterson 1-9, Rabada 1-10) need 288 runs to beat South Africa 358 and 318 (Bavuma 66, Markram 55, Jayasuriya 5-129)
Having set Sri Lanka a mammoth target of 348 runs, South Africa’s quicks removed Sri Lanka’s openers before tea. Kagiso Rabada rapped Dimuth Karunaratne in front of the stumps, to dismiss him cheaply for the fourth time in the series. Pathum Nissanka, who had overturned an lbw decision against him in the second over, nicked off driving away from his body in the 13th over.
By tea, Sri Lanka had scratched their way to 60 for 2, the ball – 19 overs old – still doing plenty for the likes of Paterson. Though South Africa are clearly ascendant, Sri Lanka will feel they are not out of it yet, having orchestrated two difficult run chases in their 2019 series here. Still, they need to chase more runs than have ever been successfully chased in South Africa. The record in the country is South Africa’s running down of 340 against Australia, in 2002.
Bedingham’s 35 was the largest individual contribution to the 126 South Africa scored in total on Sunday. But the tail’s runs were again substantial, as they had been in the first innings. South Africa had been eight down at lunch, but Rabada, Keshav Maharaj, and Dane Paterson clubbed two sixes and five fours between them, to bolster South Africa’s advantage.
Karunaratne’s downfall came in the third over. Where earlier in the series, he’d been out edging Rabada, this time he was out to a ball that nipped back at him. He was convinced to review that decision, and Sri Lanka lost a review as a result. Thus ended Karunaratne’s torrid series – he made 27 all up.
Nissanka had appeared slightly more comfortable, though there were plenty of plays and misses for him too. He’d pounced on full, wide deliveries before to send them screaming through cover, but did not account for Paterson’s movement away when he threw his bat at another delivery wide of the stumps.
Of all their dismissals in the morning session, South Africa will rue Tristan Stubbs’ run out the most. He and overnight partner Bavuma had begun the day brightly, and had extended their fourth-wicket stand to 103, when Bavuma clubbed a Lahiru Kumara ball to deep midwicket, and took off for a tight two. Stubbs hesitated upon turning for the second however, and attempted to turn Bavuma back, but both batters were caught ball-watching. They were caught mid-pitch for long enough that Kumara could get back to the non-striker’s stumps and run Stubbs out with ease. He was out for 47.
Bavuma, who early in the day completed his fourth half-century of the series (one of them is a hundred), then put on a 41-run stand with Bedingham, whom Sri Lanka tested with the short ball with a stacked leg-side field (he had been dropped twice trying to pull in the first innings). They got through that period, but Bavuma could not defy Jayasuriya forever. He was bowled trying to sweep the spinner, the ball leaping out of the rough. With this 66, Bavuma has 327 runs for the series.
Bedingham batted with much more caution than he had displayed in the first innings, but edged Jayasuriya to slip, the ball once again kicking off the surface to take the outside edge. Vishwa Fernando then zipped one off the surface in the channel to have Kyle Verreynne caught behind for nine. Jansen had attempted to hit out against Jayasuriya, and was caught on the deep-midwicket boundary.
Andrew Fidel Fernando is a senior writer at ESPNcricinfo. @afidelf
Source: ESPN Crickinfo